The K'uh

The Mayan Pantheon

History
The K'uh are the gods of the ancient Maya empire, deities of a people who flourished in the rich
Jungles of Mexico, Guatemala and Belize and created some of the most memorable and mysterious
art and architecture of the ancient world. In their heyday, the K'uh were adored by lineages of
rainforest emperors and the citizens of rich trading centers and ceremonial cities, sacrificed to with
blood and ecstasy by a people who called upon them to bestow their blessings and maintain the
balance of the world around them. Unlike the centralized pantheons of other parts of the world, the
Maya gods appeared to their people in many wideflung kingdoms and under many names and faces.
They are as changeable as the seasons, transforming to become whatever is most needed by their
people, and as eternal in their ancient roles as the elements themselves.

While the K'uh are as strongly endangered by the escape of the Titans as any other pantheon, their
circumstances differ; their Overworld is not under siege at the moment except by rogue agents of
the Titans, while their Underworld suffers from heavy, unrelenting attack by their enemies. They
have long been considered allies by the other pantheons of the Americas, but until the sundering of
Tartarus were mostly inactive in the World, dreaming their dreams of a world that once honored and
worshiped them with thorn and knife while they whiled away the centuries in the heavenly realms.

Now that the World needs them again, the K'uh have begun to create Scions, heroes with the
potential to destroy the corruption breaking forth into the World and devastating it with the taint of
the Titans. These Scions are closer to their mortal lives and the defenseless humans who need their
protection than those of some other pantheons, and their nearness to mortality makes them all the
more suited to act as its protectors, battling corruption, fighting injustice and using their keen wits
and creativity to overcome the staid and predictable cruelty of their enemies.

The K'uh are not isolationists, but neither are they normally very interested in the affairs of other
pantheons or powers outside their normal spheres of influence. The war against the Titans has
forced them to interact with other gods far more than they are normally accustomed to, and as a
result new alliances and enmities are beginning to rear their heads as the Maya gods spend more
and more time in the company of foreign powers.

Relations with Other Pantheons

-The Aesir: The K'uh are not overly fond of any of the Europeangods, including the Aesir, whom
they view as indifferent to the destruction of their people at best and accomplices at worst. The
Aesir tendency toward violence and excess is also irritating to them, often upsetting the precious
precious balance of the world and completely without any subtlety or complexity that they can see.
The Aesir, on the other hand, appreciate the humorous hijinks of some of the K'uh gods and don't
know why everyone can't just be friends, sharing in glorious and bloody battle.

-The Amatsukami: The K'uh really don't get the Amatsukami; they understand their grim devotion
to the destruction of the Titans and betterment of their people, but the way they go about it looks
totally alien to a pantheon more accustomed to easy flexibility, personal change and natural
rhythms. The Japanese gods, in turn, are severely put off by the K'uh, who appear seemingly at
random in different forms and aspects and seem to them to be distressingly flighty and changeable
when they should take things more seriously.

-The Aztlanti: The relationship between the two most powerful pantheons of Mesoamerica is a long
and checkered one, characterized by mutual wariness and respect and full of long periods of uneasy
peace and short bursts of unpredictable conflict. The two pantheons acknowledge that they are alike
- too alike, possibly - but this does not always translate to cooperation, as their goals leave little
room for compromise between them. The Aztlanti are occasionally prone to trying to gain influence
over the K'uh, who they view as a somewhat crusty old pantheon that should have gracefully retired
centuries ago, and the K'uh think of them as upstarts with an unnecessary obsession with their own
importance. Nevertheless, the two pantheons understand and respect one another almost effortlessly,
making them capable of joining together as a potent force against their Titan enemies.

-The Celestial Bureaucracy: The gods of China are actually rather fond of the K'uh; although they
have not had much contact historically, they see them as displaced brothers from the other end of
the earth, doing their part to keep the forces of the world balanced and acting as responsible
stewards (or humanity (although they could do without the heavy bloodletting). The two pantheons
usually cooperate fairly well, if infrequently, collaborating in those rare moments when they can
lend some mutual aid to their struggling compatriots.

-The Devas: The K'uh are frankly somewhat bemused by the Deva insistence on the dangers of the
hidden and the illusory; they understand the mutable nature of reality well enough, being prone to
changing their own natures when convenientbut they don't know why the Devas respond to that
natural fact of life with histrionic distress. They are neverthless perfectly happy to help them, but
the Devas themselves are more than a little suspicious of a people who change so quickly and
effortlessly that they can't be sure what features are real and which merely transitory.

-The Dodekatheon: Frosty disapproval reigns between the Maya and Greek gods; the deities of
Olympus tend to view the K'uh somewhat condescendingly as primitive gods of a primitive people
and don't believe they have much to contribute to the divine efforts against the Titans. The K'uh are
perfectly aware of this attitude and do not appreciate it in the slightest; if the Dodekatheon are going
to be determined that the K'uh couldn't possibly help them, they aren't about to go out of their way
to offer that help unless asked with an appropriate amount of humility.

-The Loa: The K'uh are no strangers to the Loa, whom they have coexisted with as new neighbors
ever since the European colonists brought their African slaves along with them to the New World.
The two pantheons are close friends and allies, sharing a passion for preserving humanity along
with a free-spirited love of change and growth to match the needs of a changing world. They don't
always see eye to eye, particularly when it comes to matters of sacrifice and warfare, but they are
staunch allies and always willing to work closely in service of the greater good.

-The Nemetondevos: Although the gods of the ancient Gauls respect the K'uh for their obvious
courage and prowess, they have a hard time connecting with them, finding them entirely too odd,
strangely passive and changeable with the whims of the world. The two pantheons seldom have any
direct contact, and although they're willing to work together, they usually spend almost as much
time on misunderstanding and outraged sensibilities as they do on getting anything done.

-The Pesedjet: The Egyptian gods, being also many-faced and careful caretakers of an ancient
empire, find that they have much in common with the K'uh. Even before the current troubles with
the Titans, gods from each pantheon occasionally visited the other in a sort of divine exchange
program. The are occasionally given to a ratnbunctiousness that unsettles the Pesedjet, and likewise
the Egyptian deities sometimes seem entirely too hung up on political matters to enjoy life, but
relations between them remain comfortable in spite of these minor differences.

-The Tuatha de Danann. There are certain members of the K'uh - the Hero Twins most especially -
who are enchanted with the exotic gods of the Tuatha de Danann, whose zest for life and over-the-
top love of violence and adventure makes any time spent with them exciting, to say the least. Of
course, the rest of the pantheon is not nearly as sanguine about them; their memories of the
European invasion of the Americas are still fresh and they suspect that the conquest-hungry Tuatha
might have had something to do with it, and in any case their antics are often unnecessarily
dangerous. The Tuatha think the K'uh need to lighten up, and so far neither pantheon has been able
to fully appease the other.

-The Yazata. The faraway Yazata are enigmatic to the K'uh, who seldom interact with them and
have no particularly strong feelings about them one way or the other. Both pantheons regard the
other as capable and valuable to the war effort, although the Yazata do see the K'uh as slightly
fanciful while the K'uh are annoyed by the overwhelming and inflexible insistence of the Yazata on
their ideals of divine law and order.

The Pantheon
Scions of the K'uh are almost always passionate and active in the World and the divine realms that
supporrand surround it, appearing not just as warriors but as preservationists, historians and
advocates for their people. They do things in broad strokes and large leaps, committing their all to
faits of heroism and grand gestures meant to better the universe and themselves at the same time.
They often allow their enthusiasm to overtake their judgment, but there's no denying the strength of
their convictions or the incredible power for good they wield as soldiers in a divine war against evil.

Virtues: Conviction, Courage, Harmony, Loyalty

Awilix

AKA: Acna, Auilix, Avilix, Colel, Goddess I, Po

Awilix is the young, fertile and beautiful goddess of the moon, the representative of healing and the
sexual power of femininity. Often depicted with her sacred lunar rabbit, she controls the tides
through her sacred well and chooses to visit healing and fertility or barrenness and illness upon
humanity as she sees fit. Awilix's status as the most alluring of the Maya goddesses earns her a great
deal of attention from the male gods among them, but her sovereign realm in the sky is her own,
and along with Ix Chel she represents a divinely and uniquely female power.

Awilix is more clever than most give her credit for, and her appearances in the World, where she
more often than not uses her considerable charms to control and influence from behind the scenes,
usually demonstrate this. She is slightly mercenary and prone to getting what she wants before
worrying about anyone else, and often walks the earth as an astronomy student with an uncannily
accurate eye, a ruthless CEO in the beauty industry or a student modeling on the runway to support
her college career.

Scions of Awilix are always noticeable; they have a kind of glow about them that can't be hidden, no
matter how much or little they worry about their appearance. They are almost always popular and
sought after as lovers and friends, but their dedication to their own goals means that they are seldom
pushed around or influenced by others because of it.

Powers: Epic Appearance, Epic Charisma, Animal (Rabbit), Health, Moon, Tal'ich, Water
Abilities: Animal Ken, Empathy, Fortitude, Medicine, Politics, Presence
Rivals: Andarta, Artemis, Bastet, Chang'e

Chaac

AKA: Chaahk Chaak, Chac, God B, Menzabac

A celestial warrior of fearsome aspect and universal importance, Chaac is the absolute rule of the
thunderous heavens, pouring rain fromhis massive jars, slashing his axe through the air to create the
hot streaks of lightning and blowing on a conch horn that reverberates crashing thunder across the
land. It's not surprising that such a fearsome figure is also a god of war, sallying forth against his
pantheon's enemies, or that he is as beloved for providing Life-giving rains to keep the earth green
and growing as he is respected for his thundering power.

Chaac doesn't often visit the World, which haskrouble handling him; even undercover, he tends to
overwhelm and overawe everyone around him, chain-smoking cigars while he grins through
abnormally large teeth. When he does arrive, it's inevitably in a blustery, front-and-center role
making some kind of major splash that shakes up the status quo. He sometimes appears as an
environmental lawyer, professional deep-sea fisherman or riot policeman charging into the thick of
a mob.

Chaac's children, like him, often embody power more than discretion; they tend toward big ideas,
big projects and even bigger tantrums when things don't work out quite as planned. They can put all
that energy to good use, however, and often serve their fellow men as warriors and caretakers, ready
to head into the breach for the greater good.

Powers: Epic Strength, Animal (Snake), Fertility, Sky, Tal'ich, War

Abilities: Animal Ken, Athletics, Brawl, Command, Melee, Survival
Rivals: Indra, Marduk, Raiden, Set, Susanoo, Thor, TIaloc, Zeus

Hun Nal

AKA: Bolon Mayel, God E, Hun Hunahpu, Hun Nal Ye, Jun Ixim

The god of maize is one of the most beloved of all his pantheon. The lord of all growing things,
from golden maize to rich cacao to the flowering world tree itself, he represents the cycle of rebirth,
the potent fertility of the earth, and life that grows from the fertile soil of death. As the patron of all
the finer things in life, he is also closely with such riches as jewels, honey and artistic pleasure,
providing nothing but joy and wealth to his people.

Hun Nal's stoic and tranquil temperament usually translates to the roles he takes on when he visits
the World. Most often seen as an unprepossessing man whose gifts are remembered long after he
has been forgotten, he has been seen as a redwood preservationist, an artisan chocolatier or a pawn
shop owner peddling valuable treasures for mere pennies.

Scions of Hun Nat tend toward the cleverly patient, equally as suited to solving their problems with
quick thinking as to waiting out an enemy siege or surviving overwhelming odds in their struggle
against the minions of the Titans. Others might occasionally accuse them of not doing as much as
they could be, but only if they can't see through their patient exterior to the wheels spinning within.

Powers: Epic Charisma, Epic Stamina, Death, Fertility, Health, Tal'ich

Abilities: Art, Athletics, Empathy, Fortitude, Medicine, Survival
Rivals: Dionysus, Freyr, Osiris, Xipe Totec

Hunahpu

AKA: Junajpu

Hunahpu is the older of the infamous Hero Twins, the adventurous gods who long ago brought
Xibalba to its knees through cunning and mischief. He has much in common with his twin,
including mastery over transformation and misdirection and mighty prowess as a hunter; in
addition, he now serves as a sun-god, illuminating the day and lording over the brightly-lit world of
the living. Though he lacks the seniority of some of the other gods and his bright-spirited nature
sometimes comes off as less than serious, he is nevertheless accorded the respect that is his due as
one of the preeminent gods of the ancient tales.

Hunahpu loves all things bright, exciting and entertaining, and when he appears in the World
usually gravitates immediately toward whatever strikes his fancy first. He has walked the halls of
the world's greatest museums as a curator, competed as an all-star basketball player and weaseled
his way into every celebrity bash and star-studded party that happens in his vicinity. Such events are
always glad to have him, as he tends to be the life of the party even if no one is entirely sure who he
is.

Scions of Hunahpu are usually bright, quick and prone to excitement, bringing his most decisive
and energetic qualities to everything they do. They may not always make the best decisions, and
more than one has been burned by leaping in with more enthusiasm than foresight, but even so their
playful natures and ability to talk their way out of anything often earn them more than a few good
friends.

Powers: Epic Manipulation, Epic Perception, Epic Stamina, Fertility, Magic, Sun, Tal'ich
Abilities: Animal Ken, Athletics, Fortitude, Investigation, Politics, Survival
Rivals: Xbalanque; Apollo, Houyi, Huitzilopochtli, Quetzalcoalt, Tezcatlipoca

Itzamna

AKA: Colop u Uich Kin, God D, Hachakyum, Hunab Ku, Itzam Na, Xpiyacoc, Zaquininac

ltzamna is the most ancient and respected of all the K'uh, the creator god who formed the world and
populated it with men, beasts and even gods. Ancient and wise, he is the patron of all learning, the
inventor of the scribal arts and the repository of all the world's secret knowledge. As the creator of
the universe he controls the mighty elements of rain and earth, and as a god concerned with the
welfare of his people acts as a bestower of good health and warming flame. Of all the Maya gods,
only Itzamna can truly claim to be the original source of life.

The Maya father god very seldom descends to the world of mankind; he may have created it, but
that doesn't mean he has much time to bother with its small doings, nor that its simple rhythms can
hold his awesome intelligence for long. When he does occasionally visit (usually only to engender
Scions), he always appears as an old and venerable authority figure, an aging chancellor, brillant
historian or crime lord whose reach through his family is inescapable.

Scions of Itzamna are always powerhouses of influence and knowledge, no matter what they choose
to do, and as a result usually emerge as leaders in their fields. They tend toward the esoteric and
scientific, seeking disciplines that can challenge their ever-moving minds and provide them
something to do with their talented hands.
Powers: Epic Intelligence, Animal (Lizard), Earth, Fire, Health, Mystery, Sky, Tal'ich
Abilities: Academics, Animal Ken, Investigation, Occult, Science, Survival
Rivals: Brahma, Odin, Quetzalcoatl, Thoth

Ix Chel

AKA: Chac Chel, Goddess O, Ix Chebel Yax, Xmucane

Aged Ix Chel is a somewhat terrifying goddess. She is both bringer of healing and easer of
childbirth and mistress of the hideous diseases that plague mankind; she is the keeper of life-giving
waters and the heartless instigator of devastating floods. As the wife of equally ancient Itzamna, she
wields the authority of an elder goddess over the rest of her pantheon, a crabbed old woman who
controls the malevolent power of the rainbow as easily as she delves into the secrets of the universe.
Few bother Ix Chel, and those who do know that they do so at their own peril if they dare to insult
her.

Ix Chel takes a perverse delight in going to the World, where she almost always takes on a form
calculated to make others uncomfortable even as she provides important aid; she enjoys reminding
anyone who needs it that good things don't always come in attractive packaging. She has been
known to turn up as a wastewater specialist, a homeopathic midwife or a senile old woman who
remembers long-buried secrets forgotten by everyone else of her generation.

Children of Ix Chel are rare, since their mother is generally too busy and too off-putting to spend
much time on romance, but those that do exist are often wildly varied, choosing to follow in their
mothers' footsteps in a variety of ways. Some become artisans and knowledge-seekers, seeking to
share their gifts with the world, while others decide to hoard their talents and part with them only
when faced with a truly worthy recipient.

Powers: Epic Appearance, Animal (Jaguar, Spider), Health, Mystery, Sky, Tal'ich, Water
Abilities: Animal Ken, Art, Craft, Medicine, Occult, Presence
Rivals: Frigg, lzanami, Ninhursag

K'inich Ahau

AM: Ah Kin, God G, Kinich

The Sun-Faced Lord is a resplendent figure indeed, a god of the blazing light of the sun and the
regal kingship of the Maya royal lines. Born young each morning only to age until he is old at the
day's end, he also travels through the underworld as a fearsome golden-furred puma or jaguar,
battling its honors to emerge triumphant at dawn each morning. As the fire in the sky and beneath
the earth, he is a friend to humanity when placated and a bringer of terrible drought and burning
when neglected or angered.

K'inich Ahau has always been closely connected to the World, which depends on his beneficence
every day, and he enjoys visiting and people-watching to see the effects he has on those who depend
on him. He generally prefers roles that allow him to affect others as his mood takes him, rforming in
such occupations as personal bodyguard to the famous, big cat rehabilitator or physician who
literally holds the difference between life and death in his hands.

Scions of K'inich Ahau tend to be very aware of their own power and influence, taking it for granted
that they are important and that everything they do matters. Their insistence on their own
preeminence often rubs others the wrong was when it comes across as arrogant or condescending,
but they aren't always trying to set themselves up as better than everyone else; it's just that they
know they have a lot to offer to the world, and they aren't about to hide their light under a bushel for
anyone.

Powers: Epic Stamina, Animal (Puma), Fire, Health, Sun, Tal'ich

Abilities: Animal Ken, Command, Fortitude, Medicine, Politics, Presence
Rivals: Apollo, Horus, Mithra, Shamash

Sun After Sun

Ah Kin, one of the alternative names or K'inich Ahau, is also a title occasionally used by Aten (see
Scion: God, page 158), implying that there was once a Titan Avatar that name who was absorbed
in his quest for domination o Akhetaten. While K'inich Ahau is certainly not a Titan, the title simply
means "Lord Sun", so it is entirely possible that it was some other ill-fated Titan Avatar that fell
prey to Aten's lust for power, or even that he merely uses the name in an attempt to proclaim his
dominance over the universe of the K'uh as well as those of other pantheons.

Maximon

AKA: God L

Like ltzamna, Maximon is an elder god, most often appearing as a grinning, stooped old man, but
unlike his compatriot is anything but detached and uninvolved in the affairs of the world. The
patron of wealth, riches and trade, he oversees prosperity for both humanity and the gods, always
surrounded by the fruits of his extraordinary mercantile gains. A sorcerer god who uses magic for
his own gain and that of those who support him, he is also aligned with death and the terrible
reaches of the Underworld, influencing both in his role as the lord of all exchanges and transactions
between them.

Maximon delights in his wealth and enjoys flaunting it in the World, trailing astounding good
fortune and incredible riches in his wake wherever he goes. He is most often found as the
quintessential dirty but filthy-rich old man, appearing as a sty broker still incredibly influential into
the twilight of his life, an ex-actor luxuriating in the royalties of his long-ago triumphs or a South
American plantation mogul with a gorgeous young trophy wife to push his wheelchair around.

Scions of Maximon are often successful, even when they aren't trying very hard, but they are
seldom satisfied with their first or even fifth triumphs. They tend to be relentless businessmen and
high-flying playboys, finding ways to express and enjoy the comforts of life no matter what their
chosen profession.

Powers: Epic Stamina, Animal (Owl), Death, Fertility, Forge, Magic, Tal'ich
Abilities: Academics, Craft, Larceny, Occult, Politics, Survival
Rivals: Ganesha, Hermes

Pauahtun

AKA: Bacab, God N, Mam, Muti, Uayayab

A creaky, hoary old god with the weather of centuries in his face. Pauahtun is an eternal creature,
the great earth god who supports the heavens and personifies the mountains. Despite this somewhat
serious job, he has foibles like any old man, and is especially fond of drunkenness and humor,
which the people supply him with when attempting to placate him during the five unlucky days at
the end of each year (of which he is the special patron). As the sustainer of the universe, the many
forms of Pauahtun perform a delicate balancing act between preserving creation and accidentally
damaging it should he ever set it down or teeter for even a moment.

Pauahtun is everyone's favorite grandfather. When he goes to the world, he usually does so as a
jolly old man who tells hilarious stories, drinks himself into laughter and plays cards until he ruins
the other players at the table. While he never sets out to cause anyone trouble, sometimes his larger-
than-life appetite for enjoyment overwhelms mortals with its sheer intensity. He sometimes appears
as an aging blackjack dealer, a farmer still hearty despite decades of hard work, or an old hobo with
a surprisingly cheerful outlook on life.

The many Scions of Pauahtun usually share his love of relaxation and a good time, but they are
often driven to accomplish at the same time, finding that they have an innate talent to be the
backbone of any operation. They tend to choose support roles that would collapse without their
expertise, or that provide help to those seem inexplicably less hardy than themselves.

Powers: Epic Charisma, Epic Stamina, Earth, Sky, Tal'ich

Abilities: Academics, Art, Athletics, Empathy, Fortitude, Survival
Rivals: Maximon; Geb, Tlaloc

The Feathered Serpent

Known to the Maya of the Yucatan peninsula as Kulkulkan and to the people of the southern jungles
as Gukumatz, the Feathered Serpent is one of the most major gods involved in the creation of the
Maya world, a figure of awe and worship, myth and legend. However, unlike the proudly individual
gods of the Maya pantheon, Kulkulkan is clearly the same as the Aztec god QuermIcoal, one of the
four Tezcatlipocas and a major figure in the myths of the more northerly peoples of Central
America. Exactly which pantheon he truly belongs to or where he is most comfortable are secrets
that belong only to the Feathered Serpent himself, and his Scions may find themselves caught
between different worlds almost as often as he is.

Xbalanque

AKA: Xbalanke

The younger of the Hero Twins is no less of a slippery and excitable character than his brother;
Xbalanque may be slightly more sensible and prone to thinking before he acts, but he is every bit as
wily. Celebrated as a mighty hunter, he is also a master of magical sleight of hand and serves as a
god of the moon, shedding its slightly less bombastic light over the world while his brother handles
the blinding sun. A quick-thinking expert at deception, dissembling and whatever skill comes in
handy most at the moment, he is one of most versatile of the gods (and the most likely to get up to
youthful hijinks).

Xbalanque often finds that the World is too simple and unexciting for his particular brand of fun,
but when he is there he tends to take pleasure in the simple joys of harmless misbehavior and
confusion around him. He usually visits in a form that allows him to be the center of attention but
also forgotten soon thereafter, appearing as a rambunctious athlete substitute on an Olympic soccer
team or an understudy onstage for only one night of a huge role. (It goes without saying that
Xbalanque and Hunahpu tend to go to the World together when they can, which almost always
causes more of a splash than either one of them on his own.)

Scions of Xbalanque usually share his quick-thinking ability to act on their feet and can seldom be
taken by surprise. Their cleverness takes as many forms as they have different personalities,
however, leading them to careers anywhere in the world, smooth-talking their way into anything
they might be interested in.

Powers: Epic Manipulation, Epic Perception, Epic Stamina, Epic Wits, Animal (Jaguar), Darkness,
Magic, Moon, Tal'ich
Abilities: Animal Ken, Athletics, Command, Fortitude, Marksmanship, Survival
Rivals: Hunahpu; Quetzalcoatl, Tezcatlipoca, Tsukiyomi

Yum Cimil

AKA: Ah Puch, Cizin, God A, hunhau, Kisin, Uacmitun Ahau

Yum Cimil is by far the least popular of the Maya gods, and it's no wonder: he's completely hideous
and incredibly difficult to get along with. A skeletal horrorshow prone to wearing the body parts of
corpses as ornaments, Yum Cimil exudes a terrible smell, disgusts even the hardiest of gods with his
presence, and is completely unrepentant about the nausea he causes. As lord of the Underworld and
the first line of defense against the terrifying denizens of Xibalba, the K'uh certainly need him, but
that doesn't mean they have to like him. Yum Cimil himself is not inthe least put out by the general
dislike pointed in his direction; he knows they can't afford to not have him in their corner, and as a
result somewhat enjoys ruining the other gods' prissy day with his antics and hideous presence,
reminding them that sometimes what needs to be done just isn't pretty.

Even disguised for mortal eyes, Yum Cimil is horrible to be around, and mortals instinctively give
him a wide berth when he arrives in the World. He never attempts to hide his obvious connections
to death and decay, and as a result is often seen in such unsettling shapes as a soldier horrifically
scarred from war, a terminally ill cancer patient who continues to cling to life or a modem-day leper
in an undeveloped country, slowly decomposing before his companions' very eyes while he grins
and carries on as if nothing is happening.

Yum Cimil doesn't have many Scions (for obvious reasons), but those he does create have a
fascination with the morbid that runs anywhere from digging up ancient bones as an anthropologist
to working in a morgue or even becoming a serial killer. They are masters of the stiff upper lip,
always willing to do what needs to he done even when its unpleasant; someone's gut to do it, most
of them generally feel, and it might as well he them so they can be proud of it.

Powers: Epic Appearance, Epic Perception, Epic Strength, Darkness, Death, Earth, Health, Tal'ich
Abilities: Animal Ken, Athletic, Medicine, Occult, Presence, Survival
Rivals: Baron Samedi, Ereshkigal, Hades, Hel, Izanami, Mictlantecuhtli

Scent the Divine

The K'uh smell like honey, and are accompanied by the sound of cry of jungle animals when sensed
with the Scent the Divine Knack (Scion Companion, pg. 56).
Pantheon Specific Purview: Tal'ich
The gods of the Maya are many and resplendent, but their multitudes include not only the gods but
their many-faceted faces as well. Strongly connected to the cycles of time and the rhythms of the
universe, they change their aspects and powss as easily as other gods might change clothes, rotating
through multiple faces, names and souls while at their core remaining the same divine powers they
have always been. Their Scions, fledgling gods just beginning to become part of the Maya world of
cycle and renewal, can draw upon this multifold and ever-changing power.

Once a Scion has purchased a Tal'ich boon, it is permanently in effect; he may not choose to be
unaffected by any of the many phases available to him, as he has become pan of the fluid tapestry of
Maya divinity and can no longer return to the static human existence of his past. Any aspect he
rakes on remains in effect indefinitely until he decides to pay the cost to move to a new one. In
addition, Tal'ich boons that refer to the fourfold nature of the world must be used in order, following
the natural cycle as all of the K'uh are bound to do; a Scion who has advanced from Chikin to
Nohol, for example, must continue around the circle through Likin and Xaman before he can return
to Chikin again. If a Scion does not yet possess all four of the directional boons, he must still
proceed through them in order and merely skip those he does not have.

All Tal'ich boons cost a Scion's entire full temporary Willpower pool to align himself with,
regardless of how many points of Willpower he has. It requires the sum total of his powers of
concentration and strength of will to shift from one aspect to another. If a Scion needs to make the
cosmic shift from one Tal'ich aspect to another during combat, such a weighty and significant action
takes ten ticks to accomplish.

Likin (Tal'ich •)

Dice Pool: None

Cost: Willpower pool per use

The K'uh understand the universe to be fundamentally composed of four parts, an endlessly rotating
quadruple world in which the directions, elements, time and indeed the gods themselves are all
bound by where they fall within the four quarters. The Scion with this boon has begun to see this
enormous cosmic balance, and as a result is able to draw upon the power of Lakin, the eastern
quarter, grounding herself at the beginning of the divine cycle of the gods and aligning herself with
the youthful power and vigor of life and change. The Scion gains an additional five Birthright
points, apportioned as she secs fit between any relics she already possesses, reflecting this power to
call upon the vitality of life and invest it as she chooses.
Likin may only grant new dots to Birthright relics that the Scion already owns; it cannot create
relics from normal objects and cannot bestow dots on any relics owned by others. Once spent, these
points are permanent until the Scion chooses to align herself with another quarter of the world, at
which point their benefits vanish as the Scion loses the power of the changeable, malleable corner
of the world. If the Scion leaves Likin but activates it again at a later date, she may respend the
Birthright points wherever she chooses and need not conform to the way she spent them the last
time she was aligned with the east.

Uinic Chupla (Tal'ich ••)

Dice Pool: None

Cost: Willpower pool per use
All Maya gods have at least a passing familiarity when it comes to the dual faces of humanity, and
the Scion who has achieved this boon gains such flexible insight himself. Whenever he chooses, he
may decide to take on either a masculine or feminine aspect; doing so immediately transforms him
into a representative of his chosen sex, fully functional and unmistakable as either man or woman
(but still also recognizable as the Scion; it will not totally change his facial features or render him
disguised from ple who know him). The Scion who em..dies either sex immediately gains one free
reroll per scene to the abilities traditionally with it in Maya culture:

Sex Abilitie s
Academics, Art, Athletics,
Brawl, Command, Control,
Male
Marksmanship, Melee, Politics,
Science, Survival, Thrown
Animal Ken, Awareness,
Craft, Empathy, Fortitude,
Female Integrity, Investigation,
Larceny, Medicine, Occult,
Presence, Stealth

Scions may use any shapeshifting abilities they possess while in either aspect, but they cannot
symbolically represent one sex while presenting themselves as another. If shapechanging powers
cause them to switch sexes or render them sexless or indeterminate, they lose all benefits from this
boon until they have returned to a defined sex. Sex-changing accomplished by means of other
powers does not automatically activate this boon, and a Scion who has changed sexes thanks to
some other power must still pay this boon's cost if he wishes to align the two. If a Scion has been
involuntarily transformed into a different sex by an outside power and would not normally be able
to change himself back, he may still use this boon, but it lasts for only one scene before he reverts
back to whatever sex he was before activating it.

While embodying one sex allows the Scion to call effortlessly upon its related skills, he finds it
much more difficult than usual to perform tasks that are contrary to his current nature. Whenever he
wishes to spend Legend to reroll an ability not with his current sex, he must spend two points of
Legend to do so instead of one.

Xaman (Tal'ich •••)

Dice Pool: None

Cost: Willpower pool per use

The Scion with this boon has gained the ability to align herself with xaman, the north, the sacred
quarter of the world concerned with wisdom, light and the sustenance of the world. If she choose to
pay the boon's cost, she may draw upon the north's calm and thoughtful influence, gaining
additional strength of spirit. While aligned with Xaman, the Scion gains double the normal amount
of dice for all her Virtue Channels, embodying her beliefs and their sacred wisdom to a degree that
even other Scions and gods might be jealous of.

Utzil Keban (Tal'ich ••••)

Dice Pool: None

Cost: Willpower pool per use

The universe is composed of dual and opposing forces, dark against light and death against life, and
Scions of the K'uh know and embrace these necessary halves of the cosmic balance. The Scion with
this boon may now choose whether he wishes to embody the positive, nurturing forces of the
universe, encouraging life and supporting order, or whether he should instead take on the mantle of
the negative, destructive powers that counterbalance them, sowing chaos and disaster wherever he
walks.

Whenever the Scion with this boon witnesses someone channeling a Virtue (including himself), he
may spend a point of Willpower to grant that person five points of Legend, rewarding them for their
behavior and encouraging the powers of either light or darkness to continue to reign supreme
around him.

Aspe ct Virtue s

Harmony, Intellect,
Positive Positive Loyalty,
Order, Piety, Valor

Conviction,
Courage, Duty,
Negative
Negative
Endurance,
Expression,
Vengeance

While aligned with either the positive or negative aspects of his being, however, the Scion finds it
extraordinarily difficult to actively work against them. Each time he uses this boon to grant Legend
to anyone, including himself, he becomes unable to resist or roll against any Virtues he is aligned
with for a full twenty-four hours.
Utzil Keban has no effect on Dark Virtues, which are outside the natural cosmic order.

Chikin (Tal'ich •••••)

Dice Pool: None

Cost: Willpower pool per use

The tools of the K'uh vary with the aspect they take on, becoming most suited to the task at hand
and the divine symbols that they represent. The Scion with this boon has gained the power to align
herself with chikin, the western quarter and the realm of earthly power and influence, and as a result
has full control over her legendary actions which will shape and change the world of mankind. Her
Legendary Deeds grant her dice equal to her Legend as well as successes as long as she remains
aligned with this quarter, the strength of the new power of the north leaping through her words and
deeds.

Caan Cab (Tal'ich ••••• •)

Dice Pool: None

Cost: Willpower pool per use

The Scion with this boon has mastered the ability to align himself with the opposite realms of the
celestial, heavenly powers of the gods and the earthly, eternal powers of the world below them.
Whenever he chooses to pay this boon's cost, he may take on one of these aspects; doing so
instantly grants him ascendant and effortless power in it, allowing him to completely ignore the
temporary Willpower cost for any boon in a purview aligned with it:

Aspe ct Purvie ws

Chaos, Darkness,
Fire, Magic, Moon,
Celestial Mystery, Prophecy,
Psychopomp, Sky,
Stars, Sun

Animal, Death,
Earth, Fertility,
Earthly Frost, Guardian.
Health, Illusion,
Justice, War, Water

In addition, the Scion's perfect embodiment of the heavenly or earthly aspects of the universe
renders him incapable of true failure at them; whenever he would botch a roll for one of the
purviews with his current aspect, the roll is instead simply considered a failure and he suffers no
negative consequences from the botch.

While a Scion has fully given himself over to the ethereal powers of the celestial heavens or the
concrete and unshakeable movements of the earthly world, he is unable to as easily call upon those
powers he might have that are opposed to his current aspect. Whenever he uses a boon from one of
the purviews he is not currently aligned with, any Willpower cost it might have is doubled.

Colors of the Wind

The ancient Maya and their gods presented the division between the four quarters of the world in
ritual and art with distinctly different visual cues, allowing any worshiper to know at a glance what
direction was manifesting at a given time. The eastern quarter is always represented by the color
red, while the north is represented by white, the west by black and the south by yellow. Scions who
align themselves with these quarters through the use of Tal'ich boons should prominently display
these colors in some way, which might vary from individual to individual as a change in the color of
clothing, jewelry, tools, the visual effects of other powers they use or the hue of the Scion's very skin
itself.

Nohol (Tal'ich ••••• ••)

Dice Pool: None

Cost: Willpower pool per use

Nohol, the southern quarter of the world, is the final phase of the fourfold cycle, representing cold
and the deep places of the earth, but also promising the return of the warm auspices of liken soon
enough. The Scion who aligns herself with Nohol is so much a part of the natural cycle of the
universe that her body itself becomes part of the weave of the world, supported and buttressed by
the common life she shams with everything around her. Whenever she is aligned with the south, she
has twice the number of health and dying boxes she would normally possess. If she chooses to leave
her nohol aspect while she is injured, all damage she has sustained continues to afflict her; if she
has taken more damage than she has normal health boxes when she does so, the damage wraps
around and she is likely to find herself unconscious or dying as she tears herself away from
sustaining power of the world.

Sucun Palil (Tal'ich ••••• •••)

Dice Pool: None

Cost: Willpower pool per use

Scions of the K'uh respect the divide between age and youth, between the wisdom and experience
of the old and the vigor and strength of the young. Like the gods them elves, the Scion with this
boon has learned to take on the aspects of age or youth at he sees fit, drawing on the collective
knowledge of age or the vital spirit of young life. When he chooses to pay this boon's cost, he may
align himself with either age or youth, immediately shrinking, wrinkling and bending with
advanced age or straightening and firming with the visible blush of young health. The Scion gains
his Legend as automatic successes to all rolls of any Attribute with his current aspect:

Aspe ct Attribute s
Intelligence,
Old Manipulation,
Stamina

Appearance,
Young
Strength, Wits

As with the Uinic Chupla boon, if the Scion uses shapechanging powers to obscure or change his
age so that it no longer matches his current Sucun Pahl aspect, he immediately loses all benefits
from it until he returns to an appropriate and noticeable age and once again takes up the mantle of
symbolic representative of venerable elder or excitable youngster.

The weighty powers of age and the vibrant powers of youth are powerful indeed, but they are
almost mutually exclusive, making it difficult for a Scion to attempt to call upon both at once.
Whenever the Scion is called upon to make a roll of an Attribute not with his current aspect, he
suffers a penalty of his Legend in successes to the results, representing that he is so strongly aligned
with his current age that the demands of the incomprehensibly old or enviously young are almost
beyond him.

Chun (Tal'ich ••••• ••••)

Dice Pool: None

Cost: None

Having mastered the four directions of the universe, the Scion with this boon may now designate
herself as the center between them, balancing perfectly between their extremes as the flowering
world tree divides the four quarters of the divine universe. The cost for her to rotate to a new
direction (Likin, Xaman, Chikin or Nohol) is now permanently decreased from her entire Willpower
pool to half of it (rounded up), as her perfectly balanced mastery of them makes it much easier for
her to follow the universal cycle as far as she wishes.
Pakte (Tal'ich ••••• •••••)

Dice Pool: None

Cost: 20+ Legend and full Willpower pool

The Scion has finally become a true member of the Maya pantheon, a god of many faces and
shifting natures, embodying all or none of them as he sees fit. Where he must normally switch
between his different aspects and give up some bonuses to gain others, the Scion may now throw
himself wide open and allow free reign to all his many faces at once, becoming simultaneously any
or all of his forms that he chooses.

When the Scion spends this boon's cost, he may choose one of the sets of opposing forces that
Tal'ich normally allows him to cycle between (for example, youth versus age or celestial versus
earthly). For the remainder of the scene, the Scion need not choose between them; he represents the
normally contrasting ideas simultaneously, gaining all of their benefits as he exerts his tremendous
force of will to encompass these opposing universal forces.

He also very literally physically embodies his alternate forms. When the Scion uses this boon, he
splits into two (or four, if he has chosen to embody the four directions) separate beings, each
identical in every way except that they appear as befits the aspect they represent. His female self
may stand side by side with his male one, or his celestial, magical essence contrast as a mirror-
image against his solid, earthly form. All of the Scion's aspects are separate bodies that share his
resources in a single pool and may take any actions he wishes them to, and they all retain their
individual essence and the bonuses granted to them by the Tal'ich purview (so a Scion's aged form
will have his normal bonuses to Intelligence, while his youthful form, right beside him, will have
his normal bonuses to Strength). The only restriction is that none of the Scion's forms may leave the
immediate vicinity of the others, as he is still a single god manifesting in multiple forms. If a Scion
wishes to use this boon to manifest himself as the fourfold directions, he must pay an additional
twenty points of Legend to exert the awesome divine power required to embody all four of them at
once. If he does not, he may still appear as either set of opposing directions (east versus west or
north versus south).

The separate manifestations of the Scion all have their own health pools, equivalent to his own, and
may take damage separately if attacked; if one of them is destroyed, the Scion's other forms are
stunned by the backlash of losing a part of themselves so violently and suffer from a -10 dice
penalty to their next action. When one of the Scion's forms is destroyed, it is not permanently
removed and may be called upon the next time the Scion uses any boon related to it, but he loses the
bonuses it granted for the remainder of the scene and cannot use this boon to call it up again in the
same scene. At the end of the scene, all of the Scion's separate selves return home to him, and he is
once again a single being, still aligned with whatever aspects he was before using this boon.

Although exerting his will to force all of his aspects to appear as separate and potent forces at once
allows a Scion to wield incredible power, it is also dangerous to do so. It is difficult to fully control
and command more than one form at once, and whenever the Scion uses this boon, he must roll a
single die whose outcome cannot be rerolled or modified in any way. If he rolls a one, he is unable
to drag the disparate parts of himself back together and permanently loses one of them, which splits
off from him to become an independent god in its own right.

When this happens, the Scion immediately and permanently loses access to the powers of the
Tal'ich boon that the lost aspect embodied and may no longer manifest himself that way, as that
portion of his power has literally completely left him. Similarly, the new god the created may not
use Tal'ich boons to become the opposite of its current aspect (i.e., a god who split off as the elderly
aspect of Sucun Pahl would not be able to use that boon to switch to the young aspect), as that
aspect has permanently remained with the Scion. The new god thus created is one Legend lower
than the Scion and has the same amount of XP spent in Virtues, Attributes, Abilities, Knacks and
Boons, but although it is likely to resemble the Scion it originated from in many ways, it has its own
personality and may redistribute those points as necessary to reflect the ways in which it differs
from its original template. The Storyteller and player should work together to decide what powers
and specialties the new god's points are invested in, based on the aspect that escaped and what place
opposite the Scion it might take among the K'uh. Once created, the new god is an independent being
and no longer under the Scion's control in any way (although he may, of course, try to convince it to
become his ally just as he might with any other god, and he's likely to have a leg up on doing so
thanks to the similarities between them).

If the Scion is faced with permanently losing an aspect of himself, he may choose which of the
aspects in question splits off and which remains his, and reverts immediately to the one remaining
to him. In the unlikely event that a Scion has already managed to lose all extra aspects of himself
through the use of Pakte and retains only one from each set, he can no longer lose any more of
himself, although the other Maya gods may view his lack of flexibility with pity.

That Was My Favorite Arm!

While the K'uh as a whole are philosophical about the possibility of splitting into separate deities,
maintaining that the inconvenience of a personal loss of power is outweighed by the pantheon's
gain of a brand-new god, some Scions may not be so sanguine about it. As an optional rule, the
Storyteller may decide to refund half the XP a player originally spent on a Tal'ich boon (or all of it
if she loses one of the four directional aspects), allowing her to redirect the points she spent on the
now-nonexistent power.

Although gods created from lost aspects are individuals with their own personal autonomy, they
also provide quite a few intangible bonuses to the Scions from whence they were born. Gods
created from a deity's inability to recombine her elements after Pakte also make excellent Guides,
companions or even spouses for the goddess they originally split from, since they have quite a bit of
insight into and sympathy for their "better half".

Birthrights
Creatures
Zip (Creature ••• or •••••)

The Zip is a bizarre little creature, native to the Overworld of Oxlahun and only seldom seen in the
World. It most resembles one of the white-tailed forest deer that the ancient Maya hunted for food,
but it is small enough to balance on a single finger of a Scion's hand and has two pairs of wasp-like
insectoid wings growing where its antlers should be, buzzing furiously when it flies. In their natural
habitat, Zip are defenders of wildlife, warning deer away from hunters and causing arrows to go
astray from their targets, not to mention belligerently stinging any intruders who don't rake the hint.

Hun Nal occasionally grants his Scions small colonies of Zip, collecting them from their lazy lives
wandering through the forests of his realm or gorging themselves on the nectar of his oversized
flowers. They serve as defensive creatures, protecting their Scion master from danger just as they
once protected wildlife; whenever the Scion wishes, if a ranged missile is sent his way, he may
spend a point of Legend to allow one of them to misdirect the arrow, adding his Legend rating to his
DV. Doing so exhausts the Zip in question, however, and it becomes incapable of performing the
same feat again during the same story. If a Scion is granted Zip as a three-dot Birthright, he receives
ten of them; if he is granted a full five-dot Birthright, he receives a full twenty-five.

Scions may also send their Zip to sting their enemies (or friends) if they wish; the effect is
unpleasantly similar to the stinging of a large bee or wasp, but the little creatures cannot actually
deal any real damage.

Relics
Barrel of Balche (Relic ••)

This wooden barrel, roughly the size of a ten-gallon modem beer keg and stained with centuries of
use and reuse, is filled to the brim with thick golden-brown balche, the honey-and-bark mead so
beloved by the ancient Maya. This particular batch of mead is from Pauahtun's private stock and is
far more intoxicating and delicious than any brewed on earth, resembling the first alcohol that the
benevolent (and slightly tipsy) gods bestowed on their people in time gone by. Whenever a Scion
drains the entire barrel in a single quaff, she gains a bonus to her Stamina rolls equal to her Legend
for the rest of the scene, bolstered and emboldened by the delicious alcohol. Of course, she is also
instantly and unavoidably drunk for the rest of the scene as well, but Pauahtun would say that's a
petit of the relies usage, not a drawback. The barrel immediately magically refills itself whenever it
is emptied.

God Pot (Relic •• or ••• - 2 Purviews [Earth, Fire])

Even today, some of the last Maya tribes still revere the K'uh with god pots, small, carefully-crafted
ceramic bowls in the likeness of their divine patrons. Itzamna is especially fond of granting these to
his Scions in order to remind them of the rich heritage from which the come, and such relics are
usually smooth and heavy bowls the size of tortoise shells, with Itzamna's serene face carved
around the lip and a warm, living touch despite being made of carefully-worked clay. The pot
allows the Scion who owns it acces to the Earth, and Fire purviews, and is also often a favorite relic
to be used to summon Guides or Followers by burning offerings in its pockmarked basin.

Ever-Smoking Cigar (Relic ••• - 1 Purview [Sky])

Some of Chaac's luckiest Scions receive fat, unmarked and well-chewed cigars, half-smoked and
still curling with rich and eye-watering smoke. These cigars never go out, no matter how much or
little the Scion smokes them, and instead of the dull glow of flame at their ends, white flashes of
lightning keep them lit and burning instead, adding a slight electrical scent to the smoke they
produce. The Scion who possesses the cigar gains access to the Sky purview, and in addition may
smoke it at any time to create an obscuring cloud of smoke around him, levying a penalty of his
Legend in dice to all Perception rolls made within the haze (including his own).

The cigar is inexhaustible and also inextinguishable; no amount of the Scion's efforts can put it out
or stop it from smoking.

Sun Mask (Relic ••• - 1 Purview [Sun])

This mask is a ceremonial golden plate of the type Maya priests once held up to the face with one
hand, surrounded by a stylized sunburst and incised with the square eyes and flat teeth of K'inich
Ahau himself. Whenever a Scion wears the mask, which molds effortlessly to his face and remains
there with no need for support or ties, he rakes on a little of the sun-god's majestic glory, gaining a
bonus of his Legend in dice to his Presence rolls. However, his glowing presence is so great that it
becomes difficult to hide, and he suffers the same number of dice as a penalty to all Stealth rolls
while he wears it. The mask also allows him to channel the Sun purview.

Whip of Thorns (Relic ••• - 1 Purview [Moon])

This silvery, flexible woven cord is studded with sharp, dangerous thorns, the smallest and least
dangerous of the barbs of Yaxche harvested to make a fearsome implement of sacrificial dedication.
Such whips were used in sacrificial rituals among the ancient Maya, who drew the barbs across
their skin or even through their tongues or other organs to illustrate the strength of their devotion to
the gods. The whip is one of the favorite gifts of the goddess Awilix, who bestows it upon her
children in order to test their mettle and reward them for their efforts.

Whenever a Scion performs a ritual autosacrifice wing the whip and deals at least two lethal
damage to herself, site may call upon Awilix's good graces to gain a blessing of her Legend as dice
to any one action she takes in the same scene; if she is currently menstruating, the damage
requirement is waived. The whip may be used only once per day, and also allows access to the
Moon purview.

Hunter's Blowgun (Relic •••• - 1 Purview [Fertility])

These blowguns are often bestowed by one of the Hero Twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque, who used
similar weapons in their own boyish escapades.

The blowgun itself is a long, slender tube of polished wood from the rainforests of Guatemala,
stretching to about five feet long and capable of launching darts at unwary foes from spectacular
distances. In addition to granting its owner access to the Fertility purview, the blowgun never runs
out of darts (which magically appear inside it whenever a Scion attempts to shoot it) and deals 5
lethal damage with a range of 30 yards and a speed of 4. Due to its length and the expertise required
to properly aim it, it also has a -2 accuracy penalty.

The darts of the relic blowgun are supernaturally lethal and impart a dangerous poison to any
opponent that they strike. The poison's debilitating effects are similar to those of batrachotoxin (see
Scion: Hero, page 182).

Pouch of Prosperity (Relic •••• - 1 Purview [Magic])

This pouch, provided carelessly to Maximon's Scions in much the same way a rich father might
give his daughter a toy to stop her from bothering him, grants access to the most coveted concept in
the mortal world: unlimited wealth. In addition to allowing the Scion to channel the Magic purview,
the pouch, which may appear as anything a Scion wishes from a traditional leather satchel to a sleek
executive wallet, always contains exactly as much money as the Scion needs to spend at that
moment. When she wants to buy a sandwich, it has a five-dollar bill, and when she wants to buy a
minivan, opening it reveals a check for the appropriate amount. The pouch always provides its
money in the form that is most useful for the situation at hand, and therefore might dispense
currency in any form from cacao beans to dollar bills to precisely-weighed gold nuggets.

While the pouch's powers are undeniably useful, it literally creates its wealth from thin air, and as a
result it is likely that mortal authorities (especially those concerned with taxes) will begin to notice
a Scion's overwhelmingly mysterious prosperity if she flaunts it too much. Some Scions with the
pouch have also reported that it occasionally grants slightly less money than the cost of whatever
they were hoping to purchase, forcing them to prove their commercial prowess to their divine father
by haggling the price down to match what was provided.

The pouch can only provide mundane forms of currency; it cannot create magical items or
supernatural substances, and furthermore it cannot be dumped out to create a neverending stream of
riches. If the Scion does not need anything at the moment, the pouch will simply refuse to provide
anything, and when the Scion does need something, it grants her the exact amount and never a
penny more.

Pulverized Pillar Fragment (Relic •••• - 2 Purviews [Death, Earth])

Scions of Yum Cimil who please their horrifying father often receive small chips of stone, around
the size of a human hand with jagged edges and an unhealthy, skin-crawlingly slimy surface that
can never be scrubbed clean. These are fragments of the Pillars of the World, knocked loose when
th death god strikes them to cause earthquakes, and have been brought up from the depths of Metnal
to bestow his power upon thos Scions he deems worthy. The shards allow access to the Death and
Earth purviews, and whenever a Scion who owns one attempts to break an inanimate object, he may
add his total number of boons in either purview as automatic successes to the roll.

Poktapol Ball (Relic ••••• - 1 Purview [Magic])

For some of the gods, the ballgame is never far from their hearts, and their Scions are often swept
up into the same enthusiasm for the ancient ceremonial game. This ball, made of strong rubber with
a suspiciously skull-like shape incised on its surface, is granted by the Hero Twins to Scions who
show an aptitude for physical sports and contests, encouraging them to follow in their own
rambunctious footsteps. The ball grants access to the Magic purview and allows Scions to add their
Legend as successes to any Athletics rolls they might be called upon to make. In addition, should
the Scion who owns the ball challenge a worthy opponent to a game with it and triumph, she
immediately regains her entire Willpower pool and one spent Legendary Deed as she basks in the
glory of her success. This power may be used on a given opponent only once per story, and the
Storyteller is the final arbiter of who does or does not constitute a worthy opponent.

Guides
Vision Serpent (Guide •••••)

The Vision Serpent is an ancient and powerful creature, revered by the Maya, respected by the gods
and relentless in its centuries-long quest to link the worlds of the divine and the mortal when they
require it. Ancient Maya kings and priests performed bloodletting and intoxication rituals for a
chance to see ihe serpent, which could carry messages from the heavens or even speak with the
voice of the gods themselves.

A Scion who is guided by the Vision Serpent is lucky Seed, but its powers cannot be called upon
without a price. Whenever the Scion wishes to call upon the great snake, he must perform an
appropriate blood sacrifice, dealing at least three levels of lethal damage to tig:unself in order to
attract his Guide's attention. Once he has done so, he may ask it for any advice he wishes on matters
of the occult, visions of the past or future or even the politics of the faraway gods. There is no
guarantee that the serpent will answer his questions in quite the way he wishes, but it always
provides some piece of useful information and never lies, although some of its truths are so
shrouded in symbolism and mysticism that they can be difficult to interpret.

In addition to being guided by the Vision Serpent itself, the Scion may also use it to call upon the
gods of the K'uh, who can answer through the snake as if present themselves. If the Scion calls
down the serpent and asks it to contact one of the Maya gods, its jaws yawn wide until the face of
the goddess in question is seen in the back of its throat, communicating from wherever she may be
at the serpent's request. Of course, bothering gods who are busy or who feel their time is being
wasted has its own set of dangers, but more than one Scion has been able to relay critical
information or make their needs known at just the right moment by calling out to his gods through
the Vision Serpent.

Cosmology
The universe of the Maya gods is one of infinite colors and,,sbapes, vibrant and full of life in every
form and atli in every conceivable kind of horror. Tjvided into quarters and directions with heavy
symbolic significance, every pan of their many worlds has a meaning and a place in the great
balance, endlessly changing and adapting to complement the others.

The Underworld: Metnal

AKA: Metla'an, Mitnal, Yalm Lu'ura

While many gods treat the Underworld with a certain amount of suspicion and fear, Menial, the
abode of the rotting dead, is almost universally hated even by the gods that depend upon it to
administer to their peoples' afterlives. Carved out of Xibalba long ago by the singular force of will
of the few death gods among the K'uh, Map' is a place of punishment, fear and darkness, a dark
mirror of the world above that reflects all its joys as the inevitable decay and dust they must
eventually fall to. All that is light in the world is darkness in Metnal, and all that lives above exists
in a state of shambling death below.

The K'uh despise Metnal and avoid it unless dire circumstances force them to visit, but even they
must admit that it is a necessary place; the dead must be taken care of lest they begin to affect the
living, and they would rather keep Metnal under their control than see the Lords of Death reassert
their dominance in the afterlife. The unpleasant denizens of the Underworld, especially its lord Yum
Cimil, are almost universally reviled by the Maya gods, but they tolerate them out of necessity —
better the devils they know than chose that would be visited on them by Titans.

The House of Burning

The souls of all those who die descend into Metnal on the trunk of the great world tree, falling
haplessly from the World above them into the joyless reaches of the Underworld below. The first
destination of any soul that falls into Metnal - mortal or divine - is the House of Burning. Here Yum
Cimil, the lord of the realm of the dead, passes judgment and administers punishment to all the dead
except for those who lived pure and perfect lives. The death god, his face a grinning and terrible
skull, is fond of saying that he doubts such a person has ever lived. T

he House of Burning is a gigantic structure, its walls smooth, sheer and rounded like an enormous
kettle, with no doors or windows except for the hole in its roof through which the recently dead
tumble. It is dark, lit only by the ruddy light of a great fire that burns eternally in its center, in the
center of which glow a massive cauldron filled with boiling water and a red-hot iron rod, too large
for any mortal, living or dead, to hope to lift. The rod is Yum Cimil's instrument of choice, and he
uses it to burn the impurity out of every mortal soul that comes to Metnal, cauterizing their sins
with flame and agony.

Save for a single small island of muddy earth upon which Yum Cimil stands while administering
punishment, the rest of the House's floor is a flat pool of frigid, unwelcoming water, broken up
occasionally by thin skins of ice across its surface. The water is exceptionally cold, freezing even
those with supernatural immunities if they dare set foot in it; anyone who falls into the icy pool
must gain at least 50 successes on a Stamina + Fortitude roll or take the difference in bashing
damage, even if they are normally immune to the cold, as the terrible chill destroys body and soul
alike. The water is the second destination of those souls that Yum Cimil is in the midst of
"rehabilitating", and many of the freezing dead float suffering in its watery embrace until he plucks
them out to examine whether or not they have truly been cleansed of the evils they perpetrated in
life.

The cauldron in the center of the roaring fire is the final destination of the dead, who are thrown
into its raging turmoil to prove their worth at last. The superheated liquid instantly destroys any soul
that still contains wickedness (as defined by Yum Cimil, anyway), consigning it to permanent
oblivion, while those who have been thoroughly purified are boiled until they have sufficiently
proven their worth and then released into Metlan to remain there for eternity. Any visitor foolish
enough to And himself in the cauldron may roll his total number of K'uh Virtues; if he gains ten or
more successes, he is found pure enough to be unaffected by the roiling waters, but for every
success he falls short he suffers a level of unsoakable aggravated damage as the cauldron literally
melts and chats the offending parts of his spirit.

Yum Cimil does not technically live in the House of Burning, which is a place of punishment rather
than a residence, but it is nevertheless here that he is most frequently found, attending to the
business of managing the Underworld's intake. When he is not present, the departed are left to
disconsolately await his return or desperately (and futilely) search for a way to escape.

Heavy Metal

Yum Cimil's iron is a ormida, e an terrible weapon; though le uses it primarily for its intended
purpose, as an instrument of punishment and torture against the helpless hordes of the dead, it can
also be turned against enemies in times of crisis. Doing so is a difficult task, however, as the iron is
a star-level Relic belonging to the death god and so heavy that only the most doughty of gods could
hope to lift and wield it. A Scion attempting to borrow the iron, assuming she is not immediately
discovered and stopped by its owner, must gamer a minimum of 50 successes on a Strength +
Athletics roll to be able to lift it, and a minimum of 75 to be able to wield it without a 40 dice
penalty from its weight. The iron isperpetually red-hot, even when removed from the fire for an
extended period of time, and it deals aggravated damage to those snuck by it as long as it does not
leave Mental.

The iron also has subtler uses thanks to its role as the punishing purifier of the Underworld. If used
to bum a target's tongue, it deals a single aggravated damage and prevents that target from lying in
any way, no matter how well-intentioned, for the remainder of the story. Similarly, if the iron is used
to bum both of a target's hands, it deals two aggravated damage and prevents that target from
holding or using any item that does not belong to them for the rest of the story.

The iron has not been wielded by anyone but Yum Cimil in recent memory, and seldom leaves the
House of Burning unless the forces of Xibalba pose a serious and immediate threat. Living visitors
to the Underworld are not technically required to undergo the painful cleansinng process that the
implement represents, but even so, those who visit Yum Cimil's domain are well-advised to avoid
going too near it lest the death god decide to grant them a much more up-close and personal tour of
its powers.

Pillars of the World

Surrounding the House of Burning like stately, gargantuan soldiers are the Pillars of the World. Four
stone pillars, awesome in size and wide as mountains at their bases, stretch up into the blackness
overhead, acting as supports and buttresses for the far-above World that sprawls out from Yaxche's
trunk. Each of the pillars is connected to one of the four largest volcanic mountains that surround
the ancient territory of the Maya: Tajumulco and Tacana in Guatemala and Popocatepetl and Pico de
Orizaba in Mexico, their roots supernaturally connected to the Pillars so that both can support and
strengthen one another. Whenever the volcanoes above erupt, the Pillars shake ever so slightly, and
even that small vibration causes gigantic rockfalls and tremors in Metlan, often proving disastrous
for those caught too close to their monumental basis.

More often, however, it is not the volcanoes of the World that cause cataclysmic upheaval but Yum
Cimil, the lord of Metlan himself. For centuries he has occasionally wielded his mighty strength in
earth-shattering blows and kicks against the colossal Pillars, deafening the realm with the
reverberations of his strikes and causing violent quakes and damage throughout the nearest parts of
the realm (except for the House of Burning, which is immune to the general destruction). Whenever
the death god strikes a Pillar, devastating earthquakes, tremors and even volcanic eruptions strike
the World around the corresponding mountains above. Any travelers unlucky enough to be near
Yum Cimil when he makes one of these casual attacks on the foundations of the World are likely to
find themselves near the epicenter of an earthquake that even gods will find difficult to weather.

Mercifully, Yum Cimil very seldom abandons his other duties to kick at the Pillars, and it is
unlikely that he will do so right now while engaged in the struggle against Xibalba. When he does
do so, it is not precisely out of a desire to cause chaos in the World above, but rather as a reminder
to the other gods of the K'uh of his presence and power. Having been consigned by his pantheon to
an Underworld that they find distasteful and then summarily shunned for his frightening and
malodorous appearance, he considers it practically polite that all he does to remind them of his
importance is to occasionally cause mass-scale property damage and consternation.

The Dread Chasms

Just outside the boundaries set by the Pillars of the World lies the massive landscape of the
unforgiving Dread Chasm., the final hurdle that the dead face in their journey to the afterlife. Dank,
undulating water is everywhere, ranging from sinkhole deep to shallow enough to walk through, its
surface cloudy and green with underlying rot so that it is nearly impossible to tell what lies beneath
it. Gigantic water lilies, some large enough to serve as ships, lie placidly on the surface of the water,
but all are in various stages of decomposition and release a putrid, overwhelming stench into the air,
causing anyone who comes near them without a strong constitution to become suddenly and
violently sick. The salty water is especially unpalatable to the living, even those accustomed to
dangerous liquids, and anyone who drinks it must make a Stamina + Fortitude roll of at least 30 or
vomit the offensive slime back up.

Those wishing to cross the watery plain may do so the same way the dead do: in canoes, small, light
crafts capable of carrying only one or two people, paddled by hand in the unending gloom. The
journey through the Underworld is a spiritual one as much as physical, and visitors who lack an
appropriate guide or psychopomp must spend at least three days on the journey in order to
demonstrate their spiritual fortitude and succeed at crossing into the next part of Metnal. The waters
are not the only danger here, however, and yawning chasms loom without warning throughout the
area, appearing in the utter darkness to suck the unwary traveler down into their unplumbed depths.
The chasms are of varying depths, some mere hundreds of feet and others miles down into the
blackness, but they all share in common the potential to cause a visitor to fall unawares into their
jagged teeth and die against the rock, or to lose her way permanently in the inhospitable, blind
lower levels of the Underworld. Those among the dead who fall into the chasms are lost until they
are able to find their way back up, from the unfathomable distance of the ninth level if need be, to
the Underworld's unpleasant surface.

Attempting to navigate the chasms is a dangerous undertaking, one that has claimed the lives of
more than a few Scions who became one with the teeming horde of the wandering dead. Anyone
wishing to avoid tipping into the hidden chasms must make a Wits + Survival roll of at least 50 for
every six hours she travels through the area in order to have the presence of mind and reflexes to
dodge the sudden drop-offs. Those who are unlucky enough to fall into one of the clefts must roll a
single die to determine what level they are pitched into, and suffer ten times the resulting number as
levels of bashing damage as they bounce off cliff walls and impact with the faraway ground. Once a
traveler has fallen into a chasm, she must resume her blind journey from the bottom up, making the
same rolls to avoid news chasms that might drop her into even lower levels and adding a number
that she rolled on the single die.

The Rotted Wild

At the shore of the murky waters of the Dread Chasms, a traveler may finally pass Out of them and
into the Rotted Wild, the peaceful and comparatively pleasant portion of Metnal where the souls of
the dead pass their time in eternity. Large forests sprawl across the landscape, while settlements,
vegetation and a healthy animal population manic the industrious life of the living above.

Unfortiately, there is a very important difference between life in the World and the afterlife in
Mental: everything in the Rotted Wild, no matter its purpose or personality, is in a perpetual state of
decay. The souls of the dead, despite having finally escaped the torments of the rest of the
Underworld, are marked as the departed by rotting flesh and zombie-like decrepitude, preventing
them from ever passing as living people. The enormous forests are dens of dank, foul-smelling
decomposition, with trees covered in parasites and rot and animals in a similarly decayed state as
the people who live nearby. The souls of the departed here subsist only on the unappetizing beans
and tortillas they can fashion from the spoiled vegetation; because the animals they live with are
deceased souls of the animals of the world, they cannot die and thus cannot be harvested for food.

Although the Rotted Wild does not suffer from the blinding darkness of the Dread Chasms, it is still
a dark and shadowy place, lacking a true sun and presided over by the wan, cold light of the
malevolent morning star. Because of its constant dimness and funereal atmosphere, the ancient
Maya believed that at night Metnal rotated up to become the sky; while this is not strictly true, it is
nevertheless certain that daylight has never been seen in the Rotted Wild, and that those gods who
dwell here are deprived of the sun except for the brief flashes of its journey through the underworld
with K'inich Ahau.

Passages to Metnal

The ancient caves of the Yucatan and Central America have been the entrances to Metlan since time
immemorial, hidden in impenetrable jungles, guarded by hideous cave-dwelling creatures and
visited by mortals only in order to pay their respects. While the Maya believed that any cavern, if
deep enough, might lead down into Metnal's unforgiving depths, in actuality there are only a few
caves that serve as entrances to the Underworld; the K'uh are not particularly interested in having
more than a few potential entrances for the dead to trouble the living. The famous cave Naj Tunich
in Guatemala is one such entrance, as are the Cueva de Rio Murcielagos at the ancient city of Dos
Pilas and the Balamkanche cave of Mexico. Only caves with strong ritual significance and links to
the Underworld may lead to Metlan, but a Scion entering one of those has only to descend to its
deepest point, where no light from above can penetrate, and spend a point of Legend to find himself
falling headlong into the House of Burning.

Metnal is situated around the roots of Yaxche, the world tree, which cradle the House of Burning
and connect the domain of the Underworld gods to the faraway paradise of Oxlahun. Metnal may
also be reached by accessing the tree and climbing down its unfathomable trunk, though such a path
is impossible for any who are not powerful enough to use the Axis Mundi.

Effects of the Shattering

Metnal has always existed tenuously; after the defeat of Xibalba, led by the Hero Twins, its
boundaries were carved out of the very Titanrealm itself and held only by the divine right and
awesome will of the death gods among the K'uh. When Tartarus sundered, other pantheons had the
luxury of repairing Underworlds that were near the burst prison but not part of it and of retreating to
their Overworlds for fortification, but Menial and its inhabitants had no such recourse. Xibalba's
foul lords and underlings surged back into a hideous parody of life around it, and only the combined
efforts of Yum Cimil, Hun Nal and Maximon prevented them from swarming and destroying the
Underworld in those first few disastrous hours.

While other pantheons fight their battles in the Overworld, it is Metnal that is directly under siege
by the forces of Xibalba, led by the Lords of Death and determined to reclaim the Underworld they
consider rightfully theirs. The K'uh death gods have so far held them off, but barely; the Rotted
Wild, despite its vast acreage, is sizeably smaller than it once was thanks to the borders tightening
as the gods are beaten back, and more and more hideous creatures from the Titanrealm have
infiltrated Metlan to harry its inhabitants, all but indistinguishable from the rest of the rotting
landscape until they attack. Souls who have survived the process of purification are being corrupted
again by minions of the Titans, and some of the gods fear, although they will not admit it yet, that
the deepest and darkest of the Dread Chasms may now drop travelers to fall straight into the guts of
Xibalba.

Yum Cimil has sent repeated requests for frontline help to the gods in Oxlahun, but so far he has
been unable to convince them to join his cause, aside from occasional shows of force or minions
lent to him by his sympathetic associates Hun Nal and Maximon. The ancient disgust and rejection
that the K'uh have always felt for the realms of death, exacerbated by the evils of Xibalba and the
extreme unpleasantness of Yum Cimil himself, blinds the pantheon as a whole to the seriousness of
the situation; some of the gods refuse outright to help, claiming that this is a matter for the
Underworld to solve on its own, while others attempt to pretend that the situation is not dire enough
to warrant their involvement or send only token forces to appease their death god's demands. If the
pantheon does not support its Underworld soon, it is likely that Xibalba's forces may break through
to assault Yaxche itself.

Overworld: Oxlahun
AKA: Mensabac, Vinahel

Like the many crumbling monuments built by long-dead mortal imitators in the World, the abode of
the K'uh is a gigantic pyramid, rising into the heavens to preside over the universe in perfect
geometric splendor. A square and eternal edifice of thirteen monumental steps, seven up and six
down, it sprawls in lush luxury around the axis of the flowering world tree at its center. Oxlahun is a
place of both solemn ritual and boisterous recreaton, it's parts and customs as ever-changing as the
Maya gods who inhabit it.

The pyramid itself is enormous, its steps far too large for any without divine blood to hope climb
and its size as unyielding and eternal as the gods themselves. Entire cities are hosted on its
gargantuan steps, overseen by the massive thrones of the gods who control and administer them.
Where the pyramids of the World are fashioned of cold stone, the only material with which mortals
could hope to emulate their deities' splendid home, the levels of Oxlahun are made of living earth
and growth, covered in a blanket of verdant jungle and bountiful crops that grow to offer sustenance
directly from its surface. A neverending waterfall, sweet and pure, falls from above the topmost step
of the pyramid to run down its sides, providing rapids, lakes and streams of free-flowing liquid
throughout Oxlahun's watery, paradisiacal landscape.

Yokolcab Taz, the Earthly Layer

The Earthly Layer is the home of those gods most closely with the World and its workings, two vast
levels of the pyramid that form its base and extend for uncounted miles out from the trunk of the
life-giving tree. The largest and lowest step, which marks the boundary between the world of the
gods and the world of mankind, is shared by Hun Nal and Maximon, who are accorded tulership
over it to allow them the convenience to travel back and forth to Metnal when necessary, while the
next level up is shared by Chaac and Pauahtun, straddling the line between the earth and the
heavens.

Hocol Na, the House of Growth

Hun Nal's side of the pyramid is a riot of plantlifc and unfettered growth Flowers the size of men
bloom with intoxicating fragrance that reaches above to the next step of the pyramid and even drifts
down to the World below on occasion. The vegetation is so thick that most gods who visit him in his
domain choose to find a way to take to the sky rather than attempt to walk through it, both to save
themselves the difficulty of struggling through so much undergrowth and to avoid insulting the
master of the place by crushing the plants he so cherishes. Every kind of growing thing, from fruit-
laden papaya trees to lush, many-colored mosses surrounds Hun Nal, but his beloved maize is by far
the most represented, waving in huge golden ears that stand tall enough to dwarf all but the most
sizeable of gods.

Hun Nal oversees his domain from a great throne of living wood and vines, grown directly out of
the side of Yaxche; he is seldom to be found away from it, remaining close to the tree of life (and its
connection to the realm of death). The ubiquitous maize, however, is as much a part of him as his
own body, and wherever someone walks near the burnished corn of the Overworld, Hun Nal sees
her on her way.

Patan Na, the House of Tribute

In contrast to Hun Nal's natural paradise, Maximon's half of the pyramid's great foundation step is a
triumph of civilization, wealth and creature comforts, featuring pleasure palaces and precious
resources that span miles and spare no expense. The riverbeds gleam with precious metals and
gemstones and the well-traveled roads are paved with the same, their glittering reflections
illuminating the lavish open-air palaces that Maximon favors, filled with sumptuous cushions,
delicious delicacies and voluptuously beautiful female servants who wait upon the decrepit old
god's every whim. Bustling markets dot the landscape, hawking wares so rare and exquisite that
even the other gods sometimes come to Maximon's domain for trinkets and curiosities. It is
perpetually twilight here, just dim enough that the god's owl attendants can move about
withousandue inconvenience from light, and they are often to be found throughout his domain,
staring unblinkingly at anyone might be thinking of appropriating the god's wealth for his own.

Maximon's throne is undoubtedly the most ornate of all the gods' , a towering sculpted edifice of
gleaming jade and reflective obsidian, studded with enormous cocoa beans. Rich jaguar furs and
brilliantly-colored feathers adorn its sides, and its base is surrounded by heaps of precious salt,
symbolizing Maximon's control over all forms of bounty and luxury. While he is not often found on
the throne, more commonly enjoying himself by taking advantage of the many amusements of his
kingdom or overseeing the action in the marketplaces, when he does he is a figure of
unquestionable power.

Muluc Na, the House of Storms

Chaac's domain is undoubtedly the wettest of any of the steps of the Overworld, due to the almost
unceasing amount of rain that pours down on it daily. Gigantic, unruly stormclouds constantly mask
the sky, pouring down precipitation that ranges from an uncomfortable drizzle to a hurricane-force
downpour seemingly at random; it is almost unheard-of for the rain to stop, and the few times it has
done so in the memory of the K'uh, it has always presaged a truly horrific outburst from their larger-
than-life storm god. Chaac maintains several palaces in his lands, resembling nothing so much as
enormous water Folks and swimming pools that collect and refract the falling rain however amuses
him, and the few servants he keeps on hand are likewise weather-proof by necessity. The surface of
the pyramid is unsurprisingly mostly flooded here, but even so it is rife with growth and plant life;
massive waterlines float on the surface of the floods while water-loving algaes form rippling
emerald blankets across the water's surface.

Chaac's throne stands proudly in the midst of the storm, torrential flows of rainwater cascading
down its sides with a thunderous roar. The throne itself is mainly plain rock, incised with images of
Chaac's many forms in vigorous activity, but its lord, often found lounging on it while he smokes a
sodden cigar through his gigantic teeth, is not overly worried that any visitors will fail to find him
impressive.

Uitz Na, the House of Mountains

Pauahtun's side of pyramid's colossal step isn't quite as damp as Chaac's, but it is nevertheless so
cosmically muddy that visitors seldom find themselves able to escape with their clothing and
dignity intact. A mide landscape of open watering holes, muddly fields and large, jutting rocks, the
House of Mountains is distinctly more welcoming for the creatures of mud and stone that inhabit it
than it is for those more accustomed to sure footing and welcoming comforts. Enormous slabs of
stone, abandoned by Pauahtun whenever he loses interest in them, stud the landscape, old tools or
labors discarded by the god to become part of the place's unique architecture. Pauahtun himself is
most often found residing in an earthen palace of dirty but impressive splendor, but its location
varies from time to time, as the god simply heaves it up out of the earth wherever the whim takes
him and lets it collapse into disrepair once he has moved on.

The throne of Pauahtun resembles nothing so much as a mountain itself, a solid piece of stone that
juts up out of the center of his domain with immovable, timeworn authority. It is shaped only by the
centuries of weather and the shape of the god who sits upon it, and it is said that lesser beings would
find it their entire life's work merely to climb the throne and look out from its monumental seat.
The Muan Bird

The Muan Bird bears a passing resemblance to a screech owl the size of a small car, but beyond the
large, staring eyes and thick grey feathers, it looks more like what it is — a creature of the
supernatural vorlds — than any living bird on earth. Large tufts of feathers rise around its head like
a misshapen crown, vhile below its wings are much too long for its size, making it appear to stretch
and engulf light when it hooses to fully extend them. Its talons are also oversized, wickedly sharp
and suited for grasping, with fat oo many knuckles for any self-respecting bird of the World. Its
body is always covered by thick pads of feathers that give off a distinctly spoiled smell, and the bird
molts wherever it goes, leaving a trail of half, decayed down and feathers to mark its passing. It is
especially fond of Maximon and spends most of its time in the Overworld preening its hideous
plumage in his palace, chasing the lesser owls or perching atop hi: head in foully regal splendor.

Unpleasant as it may be, the Muan bird is an extremely important inhabitant of Oxlahun; both
creature of death and a flying beast that can spiral all the way up to the heights, it is the messenger
between the Undenvorld and Overworld, relieving the gods of the distasteful necessity of actually
going down into Metnal unless the matter is truly grave. The Muan bird relays any message given
to it perfectly and faithfully, making it an excellent neutral party for negotiations or news bulletins;
it traditionally travel: between Yum Cimil in the Underworld and Maximon in the Overworld,
allowing the death gods tc communicate freely and Maximon to pass on any news that concerns the
other K'uh without requiring them to directly deal with the owl.

The Muan bird has always been a neutral party, but with the escape of the Titans, the K'uh are
regarding it with significantly more suspicion than before. Before the Titans were bound long ago,
the bird also served as messenger for the Lords of Xibalba, and some of the Maya gods worry that
it might be tempted to begin running errands for its old master again. More worrisome is the fact
that the Muan bird would probably find the prospect of an Overworld overrun by the forces of death
pleasant and hospitable, perhaps wooing it over to the side of the Titans. The K'uh are not, of
course, prepared to be any more tolerant of the bird in an effort to keep its loyalties; those who are
concerned about the issue are in favor of simply killing or imprisoning it to avoid any problems. So
far Yum Cimil and Maximon have managed to convince their pantheon that the messenger is too
vital a link between them to lose, but as tensions rise, so too de the chances that the gods will act
against the Muan bird, severing ties between the worlds or not. The Milan bird is well protected by
its many defenders in the worlds above and below, but those who wish to risk the death gods' wrath
by assaulting it will find that it has capabilities similar to those of the Stymphalian Bird (see Scion:
God, page 352).

Canal Taz, the Heavenly Layer

The steps of the pyramid known as the Heavenly Layer are the territory of the celestial gods among
the K'uh, who reign over the skies and their shining lights from above the concerns of the more
earthly gods. Here the heavenly lights are closer and larger than they are in the World, bathing the
pyramid in ephemeral light, and the sky stretches up in a vast expanse, obscured only by the
towering mink of the world tree. The pyramid's third step is shared by the famous Hero Twins,
Hunahpu and Xbalanque, while the next step above contains the opposing kingdoms of the sun god
Kinich Ahau and the moon goddess Awilix.

Hom Na, the House of Ballcourts

Although they technically own separate domains, one the step of the pyramid ascending and the
other the same step on the descending side, the Hero Twins (and most of the other gods) treat their
level of the pyramid as a shared territory belonging to both of them, freely ranging from side to side
whenever they wish. Large jungles cover much of the landscape here, replete with enormous and
monstrous animals for the twins' hunting pleasure; jaguars of uncommon size and lustrous fur are
everywhere, lounging wherever they please, and monkeys (free of any fear of being hunted thanks
to their link to the twins' simian older brothers) are ubiquitous, indulging in whatever mischief they
can make. Hunahpu and Xbalanque themselves are seldom apart, and are most often found in the
massive and ornate ballcourts that dot the landscape at regular intervals, furiously testing their skill
against one another and any other god lucky (or foolish) enough to come near them. When the two
gods play, the sun and moon, both far larger than they appear in the World, vie for pride of place in
the sky, each becoming more prominent as the god who represents it gains the upper hand.

Hunahpu and Xbalanque have thrones, artistically pleasing seats with many vibrant feathers and
arnamented stones to lend them majesty as they overlook their doman, but since sitting in them
would require separating llong enough to go to opposite ends of the pyramid, they seldom do so.
Only when matters are serious indeed do they forsake one another to hold court alone.

Kin Na, the House of Day

K'inich Ahau reigns over theiourth step of the pyramid, the last and highest before entering the
domain of the elder gods above. His realm is one of light and air, the very wind itself golden-hued
as it sweeps through a landscape in which shadow is unknown and chill a mere memory. The
unrelenting light and heat make it difficult for anything to grow, leaving most of the area's surface
dry and flat, but the desert's sands are composed of gold and bronze, reflecting the sun-god's
resplendent light back a million times over, and the great golden pumas that wander lazily through it
do not seem to mind the lack of vegetation. K'inich Ahau's palace is built of the same golden metal,
shining with its own internal light even when its lord is not at home, and no symbol of wealth,
comfort or power is absent from the royal home of the god of the Maya kings. Visitors may find that
the place is surprisingly inhospitable, but most are too dazzled to think such a thing until they have
left.

K'inich Ahau's throne is in the center of his palace, rising up through an open roof to allow him to
shine proudly over his realm without ever leaving the comfort of home. He is almost always found
reigning in state there during the day; at night, while he descends to do battle with the Underworld,
Kin Na's light is mostly extinguished and the place gives off only a dim glow, waiting for the sun-
god to return and give it life once again.

Akab Na, the House of Night

On the descending side of the pyramid is the land of Awilix, the moon goddess, as serene and quiet
as the House of Day is bright and overwhelming. Here the air is still, ruffled only by occasional
playful breezes, and the perpetual darkness is softened by the white light of the moon, which is
bright enough to see by as well as in daylight but which has none of the harshness of the sun's glare.
The land is lush and carefully groomed, the grasses and vines kept perfectly tamed by the hungry
teeth of the myriad children of Awilix's lunar rabbit, forever feeding on and renewing the land
around them. Large pools of water with surfaces so perfectly still that they reflect the moon above
like polished mirrors are everywhere. At the center of the step is the enormous well of Awilix, a
silvery expanse of water that she can use to change the tides with the flick of her fingers, or from
which the lucky may be granted a draught of sweet healing water. Her house beside the well is
humble in size by the standards of the K'uh, but what it lacks in stature it makes up for in richness,
built of delicately filigreed silver, rare precious stones and the softpelts of the millions of rabbits
that have and d died on the earth below.
Awilix usually keeps an eye on her kingdom by means of the wells and lakes around her, which
combined with the moon make admirable mirrors and telescopes, but she does occasionally take to
her throne, a silver and seashell seat that sits on the roof of her palace. When she chooses to do so,
the K'uh are fond of saying that even K'inich Ahau notices her brightness, and that the normally
silent rabbits sing their fondness of her like birds.

A Land of Thrones

Thrones, as a symbol of rulership and divinity, are a potent status symbol among the K'uh; even the
lesser gods set up their own seats vithin the domains of the greater, though they do not dare make
them too large and ostentatious lest hey be seen as challenging someone else's authority. Apart
from being symbolic of a god's power, however, the thrones also actively :ontribute to that power;
they are puissant Relics is well, providing access to powers beyond normal livine capabilities to
those deities who possess hem. Each throne has different attributes and grants different aid to its
god, depending on said pd's preferences and areas of influence; Storytellers should feel free to
consider them to grant whatever powers are appropriate, as long as the K'uh are more powerful
sitting on them than hey are out in the field.

Cihohtil Taz, the Layer of Creation

The topmost layer of the Maya Overworld is home to the most ancient of its deities, the creators
who breathed life into the universe and the other gods who inhabit it. It is a position of great respect
among the K'uh, who believe it only right that anyone who dares disturb their aged rulers should
have to perform a significant climb before they do so. Here the branches of Yaxche are close
enough to see in the distance above, and occasionally its flowers drift down to carpet the pyramid
from above, sweet and fragrant reminders of the foundation of the universe.

Itzam Na, the House of Lizards

It amuses ancient Itzamna to live in a house bearing his name, and he populates it according to his
own inscrutable whims. Unlike the tempestuous extremes of the levels below, on Itzamna's level all
of nature is in perfect harmony, rain falling when it is needed to renew the earth while the earth in
turn bears its fruits and supports the creatures that live upon it without complaint. There are far
more reptiles - largely lizards and caimans - to be found here than human-like beings, and ltzamna
spends a goodly portion of his time basking as one of them, impossible to find unless he chooses to
make himself known. It is rumored that many of the lizards are older even than some of the other
K'uh and invested with incredible wisdom by their creator, but as they never leave their comfortable
domain and few other gods have ever bothered to speak to them, what secret knowledge they might
possess remains largely a mystery.

Although Itzamna has a throne — plain, unprepossessing, unadorned stone in the center of the
pyramid's vast step - he has never been seen to mount it. The K'uh consider that he is fully capable
of administering his own domain from wherever he is thanks to having created it himself, and that
only a truly colossal calamity could convince him to take a seat in the manner lesser gods.

Ha Na, the House of Floods

Ix Chel's kingdom, on the descending seventh step of the pyramid, is a dim, vast expanse of
fathomless water. The mistress of floods does not seem to actively work to keep her domain watery
and current-tossed, but it remains so effortlessly, its waters pouring over its edges into empty space.
Floating punts with comfortable seating and various delicacies drift seemingly aimlessly across the
surface of the waters, while giant gossamer spiderteebs cover the sky and block out most of the
light, rendering everything gloomy and grey. Enormous, indistinct creatures swim beneath the
surface, sporting the huge teeth of sharks, the phosphorescent glow of anglerfish and other, even
more fantastic and unsettling features of creatures of the deep. Ix Chel may be found rowing
unhurriedly anywhere in the oceanic expanse, smiling toothily at the inconvenience suffered by
anyone not adapted for traveling the deeps.

Where other gods' thrones are set high up, the better to oversee their homes, Ix Chel's is at the
bottom of the lightless deluge, miles upon miles beneath the water's surface. From there she can
sense every vibration and minute change in the waves, puppet-mastering what-ever she chooses
from the flood's faraway floor.

Caan Na, the House of the Serpent

On the highest step of the pyramid there are no permanent structures; the entire surface is a vast
lake of pungent red water, the source and aquifer for the endless streams that spill down the
pyramid's sides. Above it stretch the massive flowering branches of Yaxche, beyond them the
infinite air of the heavens; and through those branches and wide open spaces flies Caan, the great
heavenly serpent, a reptile so massive that it takes hours for his belly to pass overhead, his
pearlescent scales and massive windblown feathers reflecting rainbows of prismatic light. A small
army of lesser gods of the K'uh patrol around the lake's edge, waiting for Caan's frequent passes
overhead; they are armed with spears three times as tall as themselves with keen obsidian points,
and whenever the serpent soars over them they drag the points along its stomach, opening shallow
cuts from which its blood falls down as rain to refill the lake.

No one quite dares live under Caan's shadow; the serpent has never ceased flying in the many
millennia that it has made its home in the branches of the great tree and seems not to notice the
scratches along its belly, but most gods do not care to tempt Fate by spending too much time
directly in its shadow.

Caan

Like the pyramid and the tree, Caan is a feature of the Overworld that has simply always been there,
since the dawn of creation when it was spawned by the first gods along with everything else. It has
no interest in either gods or Titans and is content to sail solitary through the upper reaches of
Oxlahun, delighting in the delicious flowers of Yaxche and the freedom of the divine winds. It
barely notices the slight scrapes that the gods below inflict on it and ignores them, too, as part of the
natural order, much the way a crocodile might ignore a slightly overzealous plover or a shark the
tiny pinch of a remora. Despite the occasional worries of some of the gods below, it is not inclined
to come down to their level for any reason.

While Caan has never bothered with the rest of the Overworld before, a great enough upset in its
normal workings - the full-on invasion of creatures of Xibalba, for example - might get its attention
enough to cause it to consider the situation. It has only animal intelligence at best and doesn't have
any particular loaylty to the gods, but should anything assault it strongly enough to cause it actual
pain, it is likely that it would retaliate, striking back until the irritant was destroyed. Some of the
gods view this possibility as a good thing, a possible way to recruit the great serpent to fight for
them if they start to lose their battle against the Titans, but others point out that no one truly controls
Caan and that it's as likely to lash out against gods as Titans if confronted with both. For now, the
gods take pains to make sure no one annoys the serpent as it goes about its incomprehensible
business.
Caan should be considered to have powers and attributes similar to those of the Great Coatl (Scion:
God, page 350).

Axis Mundi: The Royal Tree

The world tree of the Maya gods is a great flowering ceiba called Yaxche, towering from its tangled
roots in the Underworld of Memal all the way up into the highest reaches of the Overworld. Like
the more sedate world trees of the European pantheons, it connects the worlds along its trunk and
branches, but unlike them it is a decidedly more extreme environment, with incredibly fragrant and
beautiful pink and white flowers drifting down its branches from above and enormous, viciously
sharp thorns marching up its trunk from below. Climbing the tree is an ordeal, as its trunk is smooth
and branchless until one reaches the top of the pyramid; the thorns, ranging in size from a human
body to the largest trees of the World itself, afford handholds and resting places, but they are so
razor-keen that only the hardiest can survive clinging to them for long. Anyone who touches one of
the thorns suffers fifty levels of lethal damage as the tree automatically defends itself against
invaders, making climbing them impractical for any but the best armored of travelers.

Yaxche may be accessed from any ceiba tree in the World, provided that it is still standing, alive and
in bloom at the time; a goddess need only spend a point of Legend while climbing it to leave the
world of humanity and find herself beneath the great pyramid of the K'uh. The royal tree requires
more than mere Legend before it will consent to serving anyone who wishes to climb it, however.
At the height of the ancient empire, the mortal kings of the Maya were believed to have potent
blood, regal and majestic with hints of ancient divine influence. They functioned as living axes
mundi for their people, connecting them to the gods, and the gods are in turn able to use that same
link to case their way. Those who wish to travel the cosmic tree most comfortably must do so by
calling upon that same sacred blood; should any god find a mortal of the ancient Maya royal lines
and persuade him or her to shed blood at the roots of a ceiba tree, the Axis Mundi will immediately
transport him to the bottom level of the pyramid, precisely between the Houses of Tribute and
Growth.

Gods who travel without the benefit of the royal bloodline may still use the ceiba tree, but doing so
places them far down its trunk, where they must contend with the long and painful climb up to the
abode of the gods.

Since the Siege

Oxlahun, much to the confusion of the otherpantheons, appears entirely immune to the depredations
of the Titans. No battlefields or sieges have touched they pyramid's steps or scarred the great tree's
trunk; no misshapen monsters or dire warnings intrude on the Overworld to trouble the minds of its
gods. The only primordial creature in the skies above the K'uh is Caan, who seems perfectly content
to continue ignoring them as it has for time immemorial.

In fact, Oxlahun is not under siege at all, but any god who thinks that the K'uh are therefore exempt
from the assault of the Titans is deadly wrong. The Lords of Death, masters of Xibalba, wage
unceasing war against the Maya gods, but they do it from their home in the hideous depths of the
Underworld, launching their offensive against Metnal instead of the far-off homes of the rest of the
gods. Metnal has so far managed to hold its own, but its gods have sent increasingly desperate
appeals up to Oxlahun for more aid, suggesting that it is only a matter of time before they are
overwhelmed.
The K'uh have a traditional and visceral disgust for all things with the Underworld, and this
reticence to become involved with its troubles is working against them. More gods are ignoring the
problems in Metnal, hoping that the realms of death will sort themselves out, than are actively
helping their beleaguered comrades below. Should Metnal be overwhelmed, it is certain that the
hordes of Xibalba would swarm up Yaxche's rotting trunk and fill the Overworld itself with their
hordes of decay and destruction, but until that time the Overworld remains clear of deathly
influence - and its gods, unfortunately, prone to pretending it will stay that way.

The Last Lords of Palenque

After the conquest of the invading Europeans and the scattering of those Maya people who did not
become part of their society, the royal lines of the Maya were rendered largely lost or irrelevant.
Those members of the royal bloodlines who were not executed to prevent uprisings were ;tripped of
their lands and authority over the years rind eventually absorbed into the new social order, and
poor record-keeping and illiteracy ensured that their descendants could no longer trace their
lineage back to them. The long-ago royal lines still live on in many-generations-removed families in
Mexico and Central America, but it has become almost impossible to find them.

Of course, what is impossible for mortals is not nearly as daunting for a god. Those wishing to seek
out the lost descendants of the Maya royal -Louses might do so by use of the Magic or Mystery
purviews, by asking for help from gods or beings who lived in those time periods or even through
Toed old research and investigation. The mortals who still carry that diluted blood may be quite
surprised to be informed of it, however, and as they are precious commodities among the K'uh, it's
very possible that some royal descendants have already been "claimed" by various deities who
might object to anyone else bothering them for quicker access to Oxlahun.

Titan of Death: Xibalba

No place has inspired as much fear, loathing and desperation in the universe as the hideous, decay-
ridden realm of Xibalba. The Greater Titan of Death is the end of all life and the beginning of all rot
and suffering, a place of inevitable loss, pestilent destruction and the eventual subsumation of all
life into its loathsome, decomposing mass of primordial filth. Nothing can grow in Xibalba, nor can
the breath of life and strength of vitality of the living survive the ancient and decaying source of all
that is ailing, dying and dead. Every terror of men who fear the inescapable descent into the
lightless realm of the dead, of children who live in tenor lest they see a creature from beyond the
grave crawl over their windowsill or of gods who envision a world fallen to rot and ruin comes from
this hideous place; Xibalba forces everyone, human and god alike, to look upon mortality and
despair.

Few even among the Greater Titans are as viscerally hideous and disgusting as the realm of Death.
Nothing here lives; everything is blighted and spoiled, from the withered, degenerate landscape
crossed by streams of disease-riddle filth to the creatures that make their homes here, shambling and
rotting about their business in a horrifying parody of true life. Light is scarce here, leaving most of
the unquiet dead in slithering darkness. Where death is controlled and hidden by humanity and the
gods, perfumed and buried and mourned before being relegated only to memory, here it is a terrible
and perpetual reality that spares no one the onslaught of its putrescent odors and mortal finality.
Xibalba is the devourer of life, reaching greedily out to bring all living things into its malodorous
bosom to rot in peace; the Greater Titan wants nothing more than to literally kill all things that still
cling to their brief lives, swallowing every last spark of survival until everything in the universe is
parr of its churning, decomposing foulness.
Nothing lives in Xibalba, but many things do make their homes there, from nightmarish plague-
ridden creatures fashioned from rotting corpses to dispossessed and mournful spirits of the dead
who have been denied a restful existence in an Underworld, and further to creatures that were never
alive in the first place. Unlike the monsters of other Titanrealms, which create numerous spawn to
serve them, few things are actually "born" of Xibalba; as the realm is the ultimate power over the
dead and dying, it has only to choose its servants from whatever combination of unfortunate
deceased beings it can pluck from their slow decomposition.

Favored Purviews: Chaos, Darkness, Death, Earth, Health (negative only)

Banned Purviews: Fertility, Guardian

Prominent Features
The most obvious feature of Xibalba is that everything within it is thoroughly and irrevocably dead.
All kings here are the shades of the departed or the shuffling, zombie-like corpses of once-living
beings. Organic matter such as wood or food is always in an advanced stage of decay, covered in
mold and fungus, slowly turning ro slime. Inorganic things, such as rocks, are inevitably harsh,
inhospitable and incapable of supporting anything living. Nothing here can nourish, even if it has
only begun to rot; water is fouled and polluted, fruits are inedible and filled with the rotting squirms
of equally decaying maggots, and the air itself is full of dying spores and noxious odors. The
environment is so thoroughly hostile to life that any living being who dares brave it must make a
Stamina + Fortitude roll of at least 75 every hour, or suffer the difference as unsoakable lethal
damage as living tissues begin literally to liquefy and disintegrate within him.

Despite its lack of formal life, Xibalba often minors the World in structures and inhabitants, its
grotesque features an intentional, leering mockery of the life that it intends to swallow up. Buildings
are often in the later stages of disrepair and it goes without saying that vegetation and wildlife are
merely the animated, putrefying remnants of things that once lived, but they go on behaving much
as they would in the World (if in much, much more disgusting ways). Any non-Relic item left in
Xibalba for more than twenty-four hours begins to rot and decay at an alarmingly fast rate, so
visitors who bring with them iron weapons may find their swords rusting to uselessness in their
hands or their careful blueprints rotting into so much papery dust within a few days.

Gods of death have a slim chance to affect the beings of Xibalba if they marshal their
formidablepower, but even they arc usually incapable of commanding the legions of diseased
corpses and rotted remains that inhabit the place. The only way to restore a being napped in Xibalba
from its sorry state is to physically drag it out of the place and provide it with a proper home in an
Underworld, but doing so is difficult when the Titan itself is the original authority over death and
any being that a god might wish to rescue may have rotted down to unidentifiable sludge by the
time he gets there.

The Rivers of Excrement

Upon entering Xibalba, a traveler hardy enough to survive its constant malaise and hideous effects
has the dubious pleasure of encountering the Rivers of Excrement, the first markers of the
putrescence to come. Each is wide and deep, heavy with current and impenetrably murky.

The first river appears from a distance to have a metallic, almost bright sheen to its constantly-
moving surface, but a closer look reveals that it has no true surface at all. Rather, the river is filled
with scorpions, ranging in size from a man's hand to a small horse, all of them churning, clicking
and crawling over one another in a mindless and eternal journey downstream. There is no actual
liquid, and the sound that appears to be roar of a normal river from a distance is in fact only the
mind-numbing ratcheting and scraping of millions of arachnids running into one another and the
river's banks, which see more than a few curious creatures crawl up to pose a danger to those who
stand too close. The balance of the river's bulk is made up by roving swarms of virulently poisonous
spiders, who worm their way through the scorpion scrum and weave nearly invisible we across the
river's surface, the better to trap the unwary and doom them to a slow death by stinging, poison and
millions of tiny, chewing mandibles.

Those who pass the first river find themselves immediately confronted by the second, its banks so
close to the river of scorpions that it is difficult for a visitor to balance between them without
coming too close to one or the other. The second river is composed entirely of blood - black, thick
and sluggishly oozing its way through the landscape, giving off a foul odor of decay and
putrefaction strong enough to choke. It is nearly impossible to swim the river, which clings and
sucks at anything that falls into it, and anyone who attempts to do so must make a Strength +
Athletics roll of at least 60 or be dragged below its impenetrable surface, there to suffocate in the
muck. Various creatures of Xibalba are also often concealed beneath the river's surface; some use it
as a hunting ground to catch any living prey foolish enough to enter their domain, while others of
the dull-eyed dead simply wander into it and are carried along by the current, grasping beneath the
surface for anything they can grab onto. Those who try to leap or fly above the river are not immune
to its dangers, either, and must make a Stamina + Fortitude roll of at least 60; those who fail are
overwhelmed by the stench of the gangrenous liquid and fall unconscious, usually straight down
into the river's disgusting embrace.

The third and final of the great rivers is less slow-moving as the river of blood, and its surface
gleams with a sickly pallor, an almost glowing luminescence in hideous shades of green, yellow and
white. This river is composed entirely of pus, a vast and powerful current of disease, putrefaction
and swarming parasites, filling the air around and above it with a miasma of the germs and filth of
every affliction that has ever existed. Anyone who comes into contact with the pus or the polluted
air above it in any way immediately rolls Stamina + Fortitude against a difficulty of 75 or falls
victim to one of theplagues carried in the pus, and for a number of days equal to the difference
between her roll and the difficulty is the embodiment of the harshest and most miserable forms of
that sickness. She suffers ten levels of unsoakable lethal damage every day, and all the attendant
symptoms and indignities of the disease are visited upon her as if she were the most fragile of
mortals. Many would-be conquerors of Xibalba have forded the river only to find themselves
smallpox victims, swollen with buboes or literally falling to pieces from leprosy before they ever
reach the lords of the place.

Xibalba also contains myriad other, lesser rivers which feed into these three and may appear
anywhere around the landscape; they are always composed of similarly disgusting and dangerous
substances, most often bodily waste, liquefied rot or other, even less savory liquids.

The Virulent Paths

Anyone intrepid enough to pass the rivers has earned the right to stand upon the Virulent Paths, a
set of four slick and nauseatingly shiny roads that lead to the dark heartlands of the four corners of
the realm. As soon as the last of the rivers is out of. sight, the four paths appear as a crossroads,
offering four equally abhorrent destinations to the weary traveler. Although there is no natural light
here:those who arc able to bring some with them will find the four paths to be different in color.

The northern path is mull, stained white in color, reminiscent of bone and just smooth enough to
make footing uncertain and uncomfortable for anyone who travels it. It leads to Mahrkahe, the
abode of the Than Avatar Astovidad, and its way is fraught with peril. Everyone traveling on the
white path is afflicted by constant misfortune and dangerous accidents; once every hour that he
travels, anyone walking on the path must make a Harmony roll of at least 3, holding fast to his
beliefs about the natural order of the universe, or discover that some calamity (determined by the
Storyteller) has befallen him, whether it be a dangerous foe, a sudden illness, a lost item of great
importance or a moment of carelessness that costs him something near and dear.

The eastern path, on the other hand, is a thick, petulant red, dark and cloudy as clotted blood with a
strangely sticky surface that no one who wants to preserve their peace of mind should examine too
closely. It spirals off into the distance toward Domos Anelios, home of the Greek Titan Avatar
Thanatos, unlit and seemingly endless. Anyone who travels this road must make a Conviction roll
of at least 3 every hour as she struggles to keep her eyes on her goal and avoid succumbing to the
path's insidious call to rest; if she fails three times before reaching the road's end, she folds quietly
to the ground and rises no more, laid low by a gentle, painless death as if the Euthanasia boon had
been used on her.

The southern path is a sickly, disturbing yellow, bringing to mind infection and pestilence. It leads
eventually to Garta, the home of the dread Titan Avatar Nirrti, and her influence over illness and
devastation is so strong that anyone who stays on the path is completely immune to any positive
effects from Health boons. Any Health boons that were previously activated before embarking on
the road immediately cease operating until he has left it, and it becomes impossible to heal any
sickness or wounds anywhere on the road, no matter how long a period of rest he dedicates to doing
so.

The western and final path is a shimmering, deadly black, like dull and chipped obsidian, wending
its way almost invisibly through the gloom of the realm of death. It leads to Wi'h Na, the abode of
the terrible Lords of Death, and the force of their gluttonous greed to overcome and devour all life
draws anyone who sets foot on it inexorably toward them like a magnet. Any traveler who chooses
this path must make a Courage roll of at least 3 every hour; each time she fails, she suffers a penalty
of one success from all rolls she makes until she leaves Xibalba, and further finds herself
completely unable to leave the path or turn around until she arrives at its destination.

Wi'h Na, the Hous of Hunger

Wi'h Na s the great putrid palace of the Lords of Deatg, a monument to their insatiable lust for
power and dominion over everything that falls within their grasp. It is made of pitted and scarred
obsidian and sprawls in every direction, from a central throne room with matching seats where they
hold court surrounded by their hideous minions to outlying galleries of art too disgusting to
contemplate and gardens that grow only diseased and moldy flowers to decorate their halls. Wit
Na's ostentatious boundaries include several lesser houses, where the servants of the Titans spend
their miserable bourn and where prisoners both alive and deadare subjected to unbearable torture.

The House of Gloom

Within this squat, thick-walled stone building is a seemingly endless void of total darkness,
impenetrable by most lights and impossible to find one's way around in. Mundane lights
automatically fail to penetrate the darkness, as do supernatural lights created by anyone less werful
than a true God. Fire, Moon, Stars or Sun ns may be used to shed light here only if their user is at
least Legend 9. Every hour spend in the House of Gloom with no source of light drains two points
of Willpower from the unlucky occupant, who feels their strength of spirit draining away in the
pitiless blackness.

The House of Knives

It is perilous even to enter the House of Knives; from the moment a prisoner sets foot inside, she is
assaulted by sharp, dangerous edged blades from every possible angle. The floor is paved with
knives and razors, all sharp enough to sink easily through bone and capable of turning themselves to
the perfect angle to inflict maximum pain on anyone attempting to cross them. Blades also jut from
the walls, hang from the ceiling, and rush without warning from one side of the House to the other,
all hungry for blood and possessed ofjust enough animal intelligence to attempt to seek it out.
Anyone attempting to dodge the myriad attempts of the blades to carve her up must roll at least 80
successes on a Dexterity + Athletics roll each hour; each time she fails, she suffers fifty dice of
unsoakable lethal damage as the hungry knives cut her flesh to ribbons.

The House of Cold

This House lives up to its name; as soon as a prisoner steps inside, he is assailed by freezing cold air
and stone so frigid his flesh may well freeze to it if touched. The entire inside of the House suffers
from an ongoing blizzard of epic proportions, complete with blinding snow, cutting winds and
dangerously solid hailstones. Anyone who wishes to weather the miserable conditions must make a
Stamina + Fortitude roll of at least 75 every hour or take the difference as unsoakable bashing
damage, freezing slowly into a lifeless husk.

The House of Jaguars

The House of Jaguars is exactly what it sounds like: a windowless, doorless cage inhabited by
massive predatory cats, their eyes almost glowing in the darkness and their teeth and claws aching
for the chance to sink into tender flesh. The lords of Xibalba do not feed the jaguars — nor do they
technically require food, being dead, reanimated monstrosities that are all that remain of once-living
Nemean beasts — and they are always hungry for the flesh of the living or the dead. The House of
Jaguars should be considered to contain at least thirty beasts ranging from Legend 5 to 8, all of
which use the Nemean template.

The House of Heat

Unlike the House of Cold, which justifies its temperature with a raging storm, the House of Hear is
simply filled with an eternally-burning fire. The entire House — a small stone room about ten feet
on each side — is filled wall to Hall with leaping flames, instantly incinerating anything thrown
into it. The terrific heat deals 50 lethal damage to anyone trapped in the house, and each further
hour they spend there increases the damage by 10 lethal.

The House of Bats

Bats have always been one of the horrible servants of the afterlife, and here in Xibalba they are an
army of chittering, blood-drinking scourges from the darkness. The interior of the House of Bats is
pitch-black, and the unfortunate prisoner dumped here is likely to be able to hear nothing but an
ominous whining and skittering noise going on overhead, along with the flapping of countless
leathery wings. Anyone foolish enough to turn a light up to see the horrors above will come face to
face with ceiling and walls covered in horrifying undead bats, their fangs long and hungry and their
rotting, bladed faces nightmarish. The bats range in size from the width of a man's hand to the size
of a small car, and they are all intent on devouring anything thrown into their home. They should be
considered to range from Legend 5 to 8 and to use the Nemean template, and they follow the
commands of their hideous lord, Camazotz, absolutely.
The Houses, terrible though they might be, are only infrequently used to torture those who invade
their domain and do not hold the attention of Hun Came and Vucub Came overly frequently. The
majority of their time is spent in the massive and lavish ballcourt that fonns the centerpiece of Wi'h
Na, its hoops lavishly carved and its sides elaborately incised with scenes of the lords' victories.
Here, when they are not engaged in harrying the gods, the Lords of Death may most often he found
playing ball with one another, an evenly matched team that never falters or grows tired of the game.

Heads Up

Those who investigate the ballcourt of Wi'h Na - or, more frighteningly, happen to see the Lords at
play - may notice that their ball is distinctly lopsided, and that the rattles and bangs it makes
against the sides of the court sound uncommonly like moaning and shrieking. The "ball" that the
two lords are most fond of using is actually the severed head of Vucub Hunahpu, younger brother of
Hun Nal, who was killed by the Titans long ago and buried beneath the ballcourt. They find a
particularly sadistic pleasure in playing with their trophy, especially since Vucub Hunahpu, being
in the Titanrealm of Death, is still aware of their actions despite his dismemberment but is helpless
to stop their desecration of his remains.

The Lords keep the dead god's head on a large pole above the ballcourt when not in use, displayed
proudly to Xibalba while the fearsome minions of Camazotz (Scion: Demigod, page 258) surround
and guard it. Anyone who is intrepid and unobtrusive enough to steal the head and bring it out of
Xibalba would certainly earn the gratitude of both the deceased god and his living brother, and it is
possible that the K'uh might be able to do something to help their lost member if he were restored to
them. At the very least, returning him to Metnal could not be worse than the indignities he suffers in
the Lords' tender care.

Domos Anelios , the Realm Below

Though Thanatos is a lord of his own part of the realm, he has no use for ostentation and does not
bother with the lavish palaces and pleasures of some of his fellow Avatars. Domos Anelios is
uncultivated and empty, largely comprised of vast fields of poppies, black-bloomed and choking in
their decaying scent, swaying in a nonexistent breeze. Anyone who passes through the poppies must
make a Stamina + Fortitude roll of at least 60 or find that they are intoxicated by the flowers' foul
odors, suffering a -10 dice penalty to all rolls until they have left the area. Should continuous
exposure to the poppies drop any being's Stamina + Fortitude roll to zero dice, the overdose simply
instantly kills them, dragging them into a dreamless sleep from which there will be no awakening.
The poppies are remarkably healthy for rotted vegetation, thanks to the constant fertilizer of
unfortunate visitors who never leave their scented fields.

Thanatos does maintain a house here, though it is small and has no impressive title. It is plain and
unadorned, and he is most often found inside it, resting contemplatively on the low bed or looking
out over the fields impassively. It is possible that he would be willing to talk to visitors here, but the
dangers inherent just in getting to him, let alone depending on his goodwill, tend to discourage
those who might want to seek him out for a chat.

Garta

The prosaically-named Garta, meaning "hole", is the dwelling of Nirrti and her legions of filthy
followers. She does not bother with structures, palaces, cultivation or building of any kind; such
things fall to pieces, as she well knows, and at any rate she does not need them. Gana is simply a
gigantic hole in the landscape of Xibalba, a deeper level of a place that is already at the deepest guts
of the universe. There are no stairway, ladders or handholds provided for those wishing to climb
down, merely empty, inhospitable space. Those who attempt to climb down — or worse, fall in,
likely missing the pit's edge in the perpetual dimness of Xibalba — must be able to make a Strength
+ Athletics roll of at least 65 or find themselves plummeting the unimaginable distance to the
bottom, where they suffer a hundred dice of lethal damage from the impact.

Garta's landscape is ever-changing and more than a little bit sad; while Nirrti doesn't bother with
building anything permanent, the same can't be said of her minions, the demons of misfortune and
corruption that guard and attend her. The bottom of the pit is littered with crumbled wreckage,
abandoned projects and decaying ghost towns, legacies of the creatures that have attempted to make
themselves comfortable only to find their efforts laid waste by the destructive influence of their
mistress. Any given dwelling, no matter how dilapidated and forgotten-seeming, might still house
some of her miserable servants, though just as many are empty and forgotten relics left behind by
titanspawn creatures now destroyed or moved on.

A profound malaise lies over everything in Gana, blanketing it and its inhabitants with a thick cloud
of decay, despair and drawn-out illness. Anyone who enters the ph must make a Stamina + Fortitude
roll of at least 75 or fall sick herself, breathing in the decay of the place; sheAtereafter suffers five
levels of unsoakable bashing damage every hour that she remains in Gana, and no amount of resting
will heal this damage until she is clear of the place's diseased influence. As on the road to Gana,
Health boons and other means of magically healing damage simply do not work within Nines
domain (though those that inflict disease and injury may still be used with impunity).

Markahe, Palace of Bones

The home of Astovidad is surrounded by a vast, yawning field of skeletons, bones and the crunched
and dusty remains of the shells of insects, carpeting the ground in sickly colors of white, yellow and
ivory. The effect is of a gigantic graveyard, abandoned and windswept, where bodies are dumped
with no ceremony, reason or consideration for what they might have been in life. Skeletal monsters
similar to gashadokuro (see Scion: Demigod, page 255), the Titan's favored minions, are scattered
throughout the boneyarcl; most travelers through it do not see them unless they choose to move and
differentiate themselves from the surrounding mess of discarded bones, and then only a moment
before they ambush their unfortunate prey.

Marhkahe, the palace of Astovidad, is likewise built of the skeletal remains of untold hordes of the
dead, parts of humans, animals and fantastic creatures alike mixed and joined together in random
configurations that were never meant to occur in nature. Its walls are tall and slick, its towers and
spires well-defended by sharpened spikes of bones and teeth, and the unappetizing entry into the
Titan's sanctum resembles nothing so much as a giant, gaping, tongueless mouth opening into
darkness. In the central throne room is a large, hissing pit that gives off extremely potent and
unpleasant acidic fumes, and above it hovers Astovidad's throne, a conglomeration of the bones of
whatever recent conquests it most amuses him to sit upon. The throne is in a constant state of
disrepair as Astovidad's own destructive presence slowly dissolves the bones it is made from to join
the unrecognizable sludge in the pit below, and as a result he is constantly adding to it and changing
its features as he goes along. The bones, some of them belonging even to gods, that are lost to the
pit become pan of the congealed mass of marrow and decay, lost permanently to anyone who might
have wished to mourn them.

Simply arriving in Marhkahe is difficult enough without being killed by the dead hordes outside or
suffocated by the burning embrace of the Than Avatar's noose, but those who survive both may still
find the throne room treacherous if they are not careful. The bone floor is slanted toward the pit, its
yellowed femurs and skulls degraded by age and the burning acid at their center, and anyone who
wishes to keep footing on them must make a Dexterity + Athletics roll of at least 75 or find himself
sliding slowly and inexorably toward the hole. Anyone unfortunate enough to fall (or be thrown)
into the slowly churning slime suffers the acid eating away at his own bones and fragile flesh, and
takes ten levels of unsoakable aggravated damage every five ticks he remains in contact with it.

Passages

While passage to and from Xibalba is thankft still limited, keeping the World from plunging directly
into decay, disease and death, openings have emerged since the escape of the Titans that allow the
realm to reach out and poison humanity at the sites where senseless death has been most strongly
present. The Killing Fields of Cambodia, where more than a million victims of violent executions
are buried in unmarked mass graves in a monument to a complete disregard for life, are one such
opening and lead straight to the beginning of the white road, and it is no longer safe to live
anywhere near them, as the dispossessed dead there have developed a distressing habit of rising tip
to wreak vengeance on anyone and everyone nearby (although, of course, rumors of zombie
invasions are certainly not allowed to make it to the national news). The most obscure depths of the
London Underground have also become a haven for nightmares, as the forgotten plague pits, final
resting places of the masses of mortals who died in the bubonic plagues that swept Europe, have
begun to see long-dead creatures crawling up into the light from the end of the yellow road that
leads to Ninti's domain. The black, labyrinthine tunnels of the Odessa Catacombs beneath the
Ukraine hold more dangers than simply becoming lost and freezing to death in the unmappable
twists and turns, now holding at their heart a passage to the forking of the Virulent Paths, and deep
sinkholes, mouths that go down into the unfathomable blackness of the earth, have begun to open
up in the jungles of Guatemala and the Yucatan, leading straight to the black road at their darkest
depths.

All of these entrances may be accessed by Scions who descend into them and rub shoulders with the
dead, decayed and mummified remains there as well as spending a point each of Legend and
Willpower and shedding at least three lethal damage worth of blood, the carrier of life and herald of
death, on the ground. Unfortunately, these doors swing both ways, and minions of the Titan of
Death are able to emerge to spread their taint wherever they are not combated. Of course, Xibalba is
also easily accessed by anyone who travels to Metnal and then forges beyond its borders, but such a
journey would be extremely dangerous thanks to the forces of the Titan engaged in laying siege to it
at the moment.

Dem Bones

While the Maya gods are no strangers to multiple forms and expressions, the question of the exact
nature of the Lords of Death is one that has plagued them for centuries. The two gods seem to be
distinct from one another, but they have never been seen apart, nor has one ever been known to take
an action that is not fully and unquestionably supported by the other.

They live together, act together, rule together and appear to function as a single unit; even when
Hunahpu and Xbalanque beheaded them to bind their skeletons to Xibalba, the twins were forced to
sheepishly admit that they did so at exactly the slime time and therefore never had the opportunity
to see what one Lord might do when deprived of the other. Some of the K'uh theorize that there is
but one Lord of Death; it would be an easy thing for the single Titan Avatar to animate a second
skeleton to minor his own, but so far no one has been able to say why he would be interested in
doing such a thing. Others suggest that, because the Lords embody death, they are not bound by the
rules of normal bodies and that both bodies belong to a single entity, while others have floated the
disturbing theory that one of the lords is an identical rotting tray in a decayed, deathly form. Some
of the more hotheaded among the new Scions of the pantheon have suggested killing one just to find
out what might happen — after all, if one's still alive it won't do anything permanent to the World,
right? — but their elders generally frown on such rash and dangerous ideas.

No one has ever been able to get one of the Lords alone, but if they are in fact just two brothers who
are extremely loyal to one another, it seems possible that they might be turned against one another.
Such a feat would be unprecedented in the history of the Maya gods, however, and most consider
the possibility little more than a pipe dream.

Hun Came and Vucub Came

Hun Came and Vucub Came are the undisputed rulers of Xibalba, the Lords of Death who once
held the World above in abject fear of them and dragged even some of the gods to a humiliating and
miserable doom as their playthings. Even among the hideous inhabitants of Xibalba they are
terrifying to behold; their bodies are composed of yellowed and greying skeletons given a terrible
facsimile of life, while rotting organs - dangling entrails, pierced lungs, bladders and glands leaking
unspeakably rank liquids - are clearly visible within them and hanging out of the spaces between
their cage-like bones. Their skulls are grinning visages of black rot and infestation, filled with
chittering, crawling insects and the spiders who feed on them, their teeth rotted to blackened stumps
and sharp splinters in their mouths. As befits their station, they wear crowns of precious gems and
leathery bat wings along with rich clothing irretrievably stained and defiled by their hideous fluids,
but neither can do anything to hide their utter foulness. Their personalities are no more beautiful;
they are completely remorseless, fiendishly delighted by the suffering and confusion of others,
insanely prideful and take exceptional pleasure in wallowing in filth, disease and decay. The two
ancient brothers are an inseparable pair of tyrants and represent the terrible greed of death, which
lusts after life in order to defile and extinguish it.

In times gone by, before the first war against the gods, The Lords of Death were content with their
reign of terror over the living; they were honored and propitiated to stave off their wrath, killed
when and where they pleased and knew that no oone, even among the gods, would dare challenge
their authority. Their murders of Hun Na! and his twin cemented their power but also planted the
seeds of their downfall, causing the invasion of the K'uh into their realm and the efforts of the entire
pantheon being turned to binding them to Tartarus and rendering them powerless. With the
destruction of their prison, the Lords of Death have already begun to stretch and test their
boundaries and poison the World with their deadly minions, but these are mere pastimes at most; all
their interest, passion and unholy fury is leveled at the Maya gods who imprisoned them, and most
specifically at Hunahpu and Xbalanque, the gods who tricked them into offering themselves up for
imprisonment and stole the putrescent glory that they had enjoyed in times gone by.

The siege of Metnal is currently being spearheaded by Hun Came and Vucub Came, who spend
almost all their considerable resources and time sending wave after wave of horrors to batter at the
boundaries of the Underworld and corrupt and swallow up its hapless denizens. The destruction of
Yum Cimil and the other death gods among the K'uh is one of their goals, and they look forward to
asserting their dominance over the realm of death and destroying these pretenders to their throne,
but the obliteration of the K'uh foothold in the realm of death is just a side benefit. The true goal
behind their relentless assault is to do such grievous damage to Mensal that the gods are forced to
intervene, giving them the opportunity to attack in person and lay Hunahpu and Xbalanque low
once and for all. And if the twins won't come down into the Underworld to face them, they are
ready to rot Yaxche out from under the gods and bring them down by force.
The Lords of Death are by far the most active of the Avatars of Xibalba; they consider the others to
be useful allies when the moment arrives, but to lack the true taste for rulership and drive to
conquer that could potentially make them great. Of course, that also means that the two lords
consider them to pose no real threat to their rule of the Titanrealm, and they believe there will be no
trouble subjugating them appropriately once the gods have been dealt with once and for all.

Hun Came and Vucub Came never appear separately; they should be considered to have the same
capabilities and to always be together, regardless of the situation.

Virtues: Ambition 4, Malice 5, Rapacity 5, Zealotry 3

Supernatural Powers:

-Avatar: The Abyss, The Reaper, The Scourge

-Boons: Every one- to eight-dot Boon from every Purview except Fertility and Guardian, which are
forbidden to them. Hun Came and Vucub Came also have all Boons from the Darkness, Death and
Health (negative only) purviews and possesses all Boons from the Tal'ich purview.

-Epic Attributes: Epic Social Attributes at the 10-dot level (with all appropriate Knacks). All other
Epic Attributes at the eight-dot level (with all appropriate Knacks).

Creatures

The Lords of Death are served by a host of hideous Titanspawn monsters, considered lords under
them with their own demesnes in the Wi'h Na and concerned with various horrifying tortures and
atrocities that amuse their masters. The most most important of these lesser lords are Chamiabac
(Bone (scepter) and Chamiaholom (Skull Scepter), who strip the flesh from the bones of the dead
and animate skeletons in whatever hideous shapes and configurations they wish; Ahal Puh (Pus
Monster) and Ahalgana (Jaundice Monster), who delight in inflicting swelling, organ bursts and
system failures on the living; Chuchumaquic (Blood Gatherer) and Xiquiripat (Scab Stripper), who
fester open wounds and poison the blood of anything living with sickness and decay; Patan (Strap)
and Xic (Wing), who usher airborne pollutants and dangers into the lungs of the living until they
cough up their life's blood and die; and Ahalmez (Sweeping Monster) and Ahaltocob (Stabbing
Monster), whose mission it is to ambush and murder the living in the World above in order to
deliver them down to their masters.

The lesser lords of Xibalba are thoroughly unpleasant, with temperaments to match their masters'
and grotesquely deformed appearances suitable to their titles and functions. At any given time, at
least a few of them are likely to be assaulting the borders of Menial, but the others may be sent to
guard Wi'h Na or perform any other nefarious tasks the Lords myrequire of them. They should be
considered to have Legend ratings from 10 to 11 and to possess all boons in the Death, Health
(negative only) and Psychopomp purviews available to them.

Astovidad
Astovidad is the terrible deev of death, the scourge of all living on the face of the earth and the
architect of all senseless demises and unfortunate accidents. When he chooses to appear, it is always
as a frightening apparition of a humanoid monster whose shape is just subtly and indefinably
wrong, with pitch-black skin, long yellowing nails and a blood-soaked noose in his hand, which he
uses to choke the life from mortals and gods alike. Both the noose and the Titan Avatar himself are
covered in a viscous, semi-clear layer of acidic slime, strong enough to immediately melt through
anything he touches. He is notoriously fond of sending his minions to harry those faithful to the
Yazata into losing their lives in freak incidents and no-win scenarios; he represents unnatural and
accidental death that destroys life before its time with no rhyme or reason.

Astovidad is one of the chief allies of Ahriman and, prior to his imprisonment in Tartarus, the self-
appointed nemesis of all living things. His name, which literally means "dissolver of bones", is
well-earned, and in times gone by he was the scourge of humanity, inflicting random death
wherever it pleased him and rendering the resulting corpses down to nothing but polished bone and
liquefied flesh. While escaping from Tartarus affords him the chance to do so again, Astovidad is
more interested in renewing his ancient fetid with his sometime-nemesis Vayu, the Yazata god of
death who contends with him for the disposition of the deceased. For each being that dies as a result
of random chance, Astovidad and his minions seek to steal and destroy the body before Vayu can
liberate the last breath of its life from it; if they succeed the harpless mortal's soul is dragged to
Marhkahe, there to serve the Titanrealm for all time as an undead horror instead of being delivered
to the judgement of the gods. Astrovidad's escape, recent thought it was, is already causing havoc in
the World where his minions have returned to their favorite pastime of instigating random and
horrible accidents.

The Titan Avatar is not particularly worried about the war the Lords of Death are waging on the
K'uh, who seem to him to be doing an excellent job of failing toitiftild themselves, but his ability to
create endless hordes of dead soldiers for the Lords to throw at their enemies makes him an
important gear in Xibalba's war machine. Since his pleasure lies in the death and zombification of
mortals rather than in doing anything with them past that point, he's content to let his fellow Titan
Avatars borrow them whenever and however they wish. Especially now that there is a modem world
full of new and exciting ways (or horrifically tragic misfires to occur, the ranks of his minions are
swelling like never before.

Astovidad considers himself a free agent, but he is inclined to obey and support Ahriman whenever
the reigning Avatar of Zrvan requests that he do so; they have a common enemy in the Yazata and a
history of working together to achieve their unsavory' aims. His minions may consequently be
found all over the world, supporting the other deevs and acting on their orders as well as
Astovidad's own.

Virtues: Ambition 2, Malice 5, Rapacity 3, Zealotry 4

Supernatural Powers:

-Avatars: The Void, The Reaper

-Boons: Every one- to eight-dot Boon from every Purview except Fertility and Guardian, which are
forbidden to him. Astovidad also has all Boons from the Chaos and Death purviews.

-Epic Attributes: Epic Physical Attributes at the 10-dot level (with all appropriate Knacks). All other
Epic Attributes at the eight-dot level (with all appropriate Knacks).

Creatures

The domain of Astovidad is positively lousy with Hungry Dead (see Scion: Hero, page 294), which
are not overly powerful on their own but teem in uncountable numbers across the landscape,
sufficient to overwhelm even gods with sheer numbers. Any other form of undead may be found
here as well, since the Titan Avatar does not discriminate about what kind of monsters his efforts
create, and at Storyteller discretion any creature using the general Undead template (Scion:
Demigod, page 256) may be lurching around in the Avatar's general area.

Astovidad also has two lesser deevs that act as his right-hand monsters and devoted servants, and
who he uses as lieutenants and spies as the need arises. Zarik, the personification of death brought
on by advanced age, is a bent crone with iron-dull eyes and hands that are forever beckoning those
too close to come near and watch their lives waste away in front of them, while Nasu, the
embodiment of rot and decay in the impure bodies of the dead, smiles toothily from a pus-caked
face and ensures that the undead armies of Xibalba never cease participating in the endless business
of breaking down. Both should be considered Legend 10 Titanspawn with all applicable boons in
the Death and Health purviews.

Nirrti
AKA: Alakshmi, Nirriti

Terrible, grinning Nitta is a sight to freeze any god's blood. She is black-skinned as soot and, when
she bothers to wear clothes, garbed in the same, but her eyes are a bloodshot and startling red and
where a woman's mouth should be gapes the grinning slash of a vulture-like beak. She is crooked
and bony, her spine and limbs bending in strange and impossible directions, and her hands end in
grasping claws while her twisted feet are cloven and hoofed like an antelope's; the deformities
extend to her neck, which is so brittle and misshapen that she can snap her own head off and carry it
with her, the better to terrify her enemies. She is smeared all over with greasy, cloying black ash, the
result of the myriad sacrifices offered in the hopes of keeping her away, but Nirrti can never be truly
avoided forever. She is the destroyer of life, the embodiment of misfortune, the source of death in
the womb and outside of it and the keeper of the rotting bodies finally consigned to the grave.
Eventually, even the luckiest person dies; luck can only last so long. Nirrti is the embodiment of the
inevitable decay and dissolution of death.

Nirrti has always been a problem for the Devas, who know that she isn't technically one of the
dreaded asuras but also don't want her anywhere near themselves or their worshipers. As Lakshmi's
older "sister", churned up from the Ocean of Milk in ages past, she is due her own share of respect
and offerings, but as a creature who visits nothing but discomfort, misfortune and eventually
decaying demise on those she takes an interest in, she is far too dangerous to he allowed to roam the
World and agitate against the gods. The gods were eventually forced to imprison her with the other
Titans when her brood grew too large and her appetite too all-consuming, and she has never
forgiven them either for the indignity of captivity or the disrespect of casting her out while they
remained free and at large.

Now that she is free, Nirrti intends to get her own back, no matter what the cost to her traitorous
one-time allies. Her brightest hatred burns for her sister Lakshmi; she has always envied the
goddess's marriage to splendid Vishnu and the unparalleled love and adoration that she receives,
and she deeply resents that she herself, who came from the same origins, was passed over for these
honors. Much of her energy goes to countering and corrupting Lakshmi's influence in the World,
turning good fortune to disaster and prosperity to despair, while her minions spread plague,
pestilence and terror across the mortal lands that the Devas hold so dear. Should the Devas let her
rampage unchecked, it is likely that India and the surrounding countryside will devolve into a
landscape of decayed ruins and infected corpses as she visits her displeasure on all available targets.

Nirrti is prideful and entirely consumed by her own interests, making her unlikely to pay much
attention to the obviously unimportant doings of the other Avatars of Xibalba; all of her attention is
on the Devas, who are unlikely to appease her in any way short of apologizing profusely and
welcoming her onto Mount Mem, there to perform whatever atrocities she deems worthy (an
eventualit that, for obvious reasons, is extraordinarily unlikely). While Lakshmi's destruction is one
of her most important goals along with subjugation and humiliation of Vishnu, she also strongly
desires to force the rest of the pantheon into recognizing her power and importance, giving her the
respect she feels is her right. It is possible that she might be temporarily diverted or distracted if it
appears that some of the Devas are giving in to her demands, but unfortunately she is not really
interested in playing the role of one goddess among many; nothing will make her happy but the
complete domination of the pantheon that dared to scorn her.

Virtues: Ambition 5, Malice 5, Rapacity 3, Zealotry 2

Supernatural Powers:

Avatar: The Void, The Reaper, The Scourge

-Boons: Every one- to eight-dot Boon from every Purview except Fertility and Guardian, which are
forbidden to her. Nirrti also has all Boons from the Chaos, Death and Health (negative only)
purviews, and possesses all boom from the Samara purview.

-Epic Attributer: Epic Mental Attributes at the 10-dot level (with all appropriate Knacks). All other
Epic Attributes at the eight-dot level (with all appropriate Knacks).

Creatures

Nirrti is attended by her three terrible children, hideous Titanspawn of death and illness: Bhaya,
who spreads fear and uncertainy wherever he goes, Maha-Bhaya, who creates overwhelming panic
and riot with the certainty of the fear of death that he brings with him, and Mrtyu, whose mere
touch instantly kills anything less powerful than a God and consigns them to his mother's domain.
All three are highly skilled in the Death and Health purview's, and most of the time are, on their
mother's orders, attempting to infiltrate Mount Men to sow havoc among the gods there.

While Nirrti is not herself an asura, her husband Adharma is, and she is not above using them for
her own ends. Her lands are more often than not populated by asuras and rakshasa (see Scion:
Companion, page 198), guarding her borders and doing her bidding. They sicken and die in
Xibalba, of course, but since that does not make them any less useful to her, Nimi pays no attention
to the plight of the ailing monsters around her.

Thanatos
AKA: Letus, Mors, Thanatus

Dark-eyed, dark-faced Thanatos is a grave and solemn figure, bearing himself with the stately grace
of the ancient Titans who preceded the gods and the unhurried majesty of one who knows that all of
time is at his disposal. As the ancient Greek embodiment of death, he has been present at the demise
of every famous hero and the passing away of every regal king, stealing the life from their bodies to
speed them on their way to dreary Hades. Nothing can live where he passes, falling dead as quietly
and suddenly as if a sleep had fallen over it. Unlike the other Avatars, rulers of death in its many
forms, Thanatos is himself simply the end of life. Where he goes, life is extinguished with complete
and inescapable finality.

Though he pays lip service to the gods of the Dodekatheon, Thanatos does not truly work for them
and never has, something that they can't help but be uncomfortably aware of. Thanatos exists
expressly to fulfill his function: the enforcing of death at its proper hour, no matter what or who
might try to stop it. He is inexorable, unstoppable and fully willing to lay low anyone who tries to
stop him on his errands, since he considers such an act to be basically volunteering to accompany
the deceased on their way. Zeus allowed him to continue to administer his gentle touch to any and
all who were fared to die, even using threat of Thanatos to frighten unruly opponents to his
authority into submission. but their tenuous truce was ended when the Titan Avatar, overhearing
Zeus boasting of his control over even death, made it clear that he was no ultimate authority. Before
all the other gods, Thanatos reminded Zeus of the prophecy of his downfall and the fact that
everyone, even gods, must one day die; infuriated by the public slight, Zeus retaliated by
marshaling his forces to banish Thanatos into the guts of Tartarus (though as far as Thanatos was
concerned, this wasn't so much a banishment as a homecoming). Now that the Than Avatar has been
freed, Zeus has dedicated a surprising number of his forces to ensuring that he is recaptured before
he can do any lasting damage; despite the siege on Olympus, the king of the Dodekatheon cannot
help but recall the Titan's ominous words. He fears that the longer he remains at large, perhaps with
vengeance on his mind, the greater chance that he will attempt to bring the prophecy to pass, and if
it does, he knows with cold certainty that the last thing he will feel will be Thanatos's gentle hand
on his shoulder.

Thanatos is exceptionally patient. As far as anyone can tell, he is not actively doing anything; he has
not joined the Lords of Death in their assault on Metnal, has not attempted to storm Olympus and
does nothing other than what he has always done, releasing the souls of the living to join the hordes
of the dead. He speaks very little, and mostly only to members of his immediate family, especially
fellow Titans Hypnos, Erebus and Nn, with whom he has a cordial if distant relationship. The only
other beings with whom he communicates are the eldritch and inscrutable Moirae (Scion: Hem,
page 290, the triple Fates who measure all time, destiny and the ends of mortal lives. He has always
been close to them, much to the consternation of Zeus and his children, and his serene, watchful
silence suggests that thanks to their influence he may know far more than most about the events to
come in the war between gods and Titans. Attempts by the other Avatars to recruit him for their own
ends have so far failed, and no emissary from the land of the living has returned from their errands
to see him; Thanatos tends to assume that anyone who comes to his domain is volunteering for
death and acts accordingly.

In fact, he is not doing anything ominous - yet. Time is on Thanatos's side. All he has to do is wait.

Virtues: Ambition 2, Malice 2, Rapacity 3, Zealotry 5

Supernatural Powers:

-Avatars: The Reaper, The Way

-Boons: Every one- to eight-dot Boon from every Purview except Fertility and Guardian, which are
forbidden to him. Thanatos also has all Boons from the Death and Psychopomp purviews and
possesses the maximum level of rete (Eùpathy) and Arete (Occult).

-Epic Attributes: Epic Mental Attributes at the 10-dot level (with all appropriate Knacks). All other
Epic Attributes at the eight-dot level (with all appropriate Knacks).

Creatures

Thanatos has no servants. He has no need of them, since he is able to fulfill his purpose in complete
solitude and has no interest in companionship or friendship. His domain is, in fact, the most devoid
of life and death of any in Xibalba; upon entering his silent lands, even the animated dead lie quiet
and move no more, relieved of their exhausting parody of the living.
The Thanatean Template

The shambling creature of Xibalba are thoroughly are irrevocably dead, lacking any of the
weaknesses or foibles of the living. They are unconcerned y injuries and unfazed by illness, both of
which are part of their very unnatural essence; they automatically ignore all wound penalties, and
anyone attempting to use a supernatural power that would require them to make a Stamina +
Fortitude roll must overcome an additional difficulty equal to twice their Legend rating or find that
their powers have no effect on the resilient and atrophied bodies of the undead.

The dead of Xibalba serve their dread masters and the source of the end that comes inevitably to all
life; they are not easily swayed by any other petty master of the departed and are extraordinarily
difficult to influence by the standards of even gods of death. Death boons used by those of lesser
Legend fail to affect them completely, as their allegiance to the very power that animates them is
not so easy to overcome. Any attacks made by boons from the Fertility or Health (positive only)
purviews, however, are considered piercing to thanatean creatures, who are no longer able to cope
with the vibrant forces of life and unravel in close proximity to them.

Coo Akab, the Mad Ones

The most famous messengers and guardians of Xibalba are the Coo Acab, loyal and unpleasant
servants of the Lords of Death. These birds resemble giant screech owls more than any other natural
beast, but they share few other features with earthly avians. They easily outweigh any normal bird,
ranging from fifty-pound younglings the size of eagles to two-ton monsters capable of easily lifting
and crushing a train-car. Like all creatures in Xibalba, they are devoid of true life and in the
advanced stages of decay, showing skeleton and rancid tendons when they extend their patchwork
wings, tearing their prey to messy pieces with talons that seem cobbled together from the most
unpleasant bone fragments at their sal. Their ragged, rotted feathers teem with undead parasites,
themselves small, hollow shells with no drives except to bite and burrow; their screams, echoing
over Xibalba when they hunt or perform errands for their masters, have an anguished and desolate
quality that sends a child won even the undead spines of the inhabitants of the realm, thus earning
them a name that means literally "mad night creatures". Their eyes are yellow with pus and glow in
the dark with a faint luminescence, and many unfortunate visitors have been drawn toward their
doom by those glowing orbs like victims of a giant winged anglerfish.

The Coo Akab act as the messengers, guides, scouts and cleanup crew for all the Avatars of Xibalba,
though they prefer to make their homes in Wi'h Na and have a twisted sense of loyalty to their
resplendently loathsome masters there. Whenever the Titan Avatars wish to send messages to one
another or the inhabitants of the other Titanrealms, they are carried in the misshapen talons of one
of the Mad Ones, and whenever they invite visitors they send the decaying flocks as a sort of
dubious honor guard. And, when those visitors inevitably fail to return to their places of original,
the Coo Akab are given the privilege of devouring their remains, a treat that they guard jealously
from their only rivals in power, the batlike minions of Camazotz.

The Coo Akab are not overly threatening to most visitors to Xibalba; it's not their job to police its
borders, and while they do view anything living as a potential meal owed to them, they most often
do not go out of their way to expend effort on killing it when they know the realm will probably do
it for them. They make consummate spiv., however, passing back any and all information they glean
as the eyes in the impenetrable darkness to the Titan Avatars to be used as they wish. As the royal
messengers of the Lords of Death, the owlish creatures also enjoy a sort of diplomatic immunity
from most other predators in Xibalba, who know that to strike against them potentially invites the
annoyance of Hun Came and Vucub Came if they find their convenient servants missing at a crucial
moment. Those who come to Xibalba are usually not in immediate danger of being assaulted by the
Coo Akab unless they look to be already very near death, but the birds are almost always right
behind them, above them and around them, staring through the veil of darkness, shrieking their
unsettling shrieks.

The Coo Akab come in various shapes and sizes, all of them unpleasant. The following abilities are
for a bird-monster of average size and power:

Strength 7, Dexterity 7, Stamina 10

Charisma 1, Manipulation 1, Appearance 15
Perception 25, Intelligence 6, Wits 5

Virtues: Ambition 2, Malice 3, Rapacity 5, Zealotry 5

Athletics 4, Awareness 5, Brawl 3, Empathy 2, Fortitude 5, Integrity 3, Investigation 5, Larceny 2,

Occult 1, Presence 4, Stealth 3, Survival 3

Supernatural Powers:

-Epic Attributes: Epic Strength 6 (Armor Crusher, Crushing Grip, Divine Wrath, Hang On, Hurl to
the Horizon, One-Inch Punch), Epic Dexterity 6 (And the Crowd Goes Wild, Lighming Sprinter,
Microscopic Precision, Omnidexteriry, Roll With It, Untouchable Opponent), Epic Stamina 7
(Damage Conversion, Devourer, Divine Damage Conversion, Inner Furnace, Regeneration, Self-
Healing, Skin-Shedding); Epic Appearance 6 (Come Hither, Doin' Fine, Do Not Want, Dreadful
Mien, Lasting Impression, Serpent's Gaze); Epic Perception 7 (Broad-Spectrum Reception,
Environmental Awareness, Predatory Focus, Spatial Attunement, Subliminal Warning, Supernal
Hunter, Telescopic Senses), Epic Intelligence 1 (Perfect Memory), Epic Wits 4 (Eternal Vigilance,
Instant Assessment, Instant Investigator, Opening Gambit).

-Predatory Call: A Coo Akab bird sensing a meal that is weakened enough'M be easy pickings may
attempt to lure it off the path and into its waiting claws. When it uses this power, its brilliant,
pulsating eyes gleam enticingly despite their diseased state, and their unfortunate target must make
a Willpower + Integrity + Legend roll of at least twice the bird's Legend rating to avoid succumbing
to its call.

-Eyes in the Dark: The Coo Akab have no need to physically travel back to their Lords when a
matter is particularly urgent or important. By spending a point of Legend, the bird may instantly
communicate any one piece of information to Hun Came or Vucub Came from anywhere within
Xibalba.

Join Battle: 10 + 7

Attacks:
Bite - Accuracy 10 + 16, Damage 15 + 16L, Parry DV 26, Speed 5

Soaks: 32B/27L/7A
Health Levels: -0x29

Dodge DV: 26
Willpower 7
Legend: 8 Legend Points: 64

Birds of a Feather

The Muan bird (see page 23) that makeres its home in the lower regions of Oxlahun shares many
striking similarities with the Coo Akab, including its role as a messenger, deathly appearance and
obvious physical resemblance. It is possible that the Muan bird was once one of the Coo Akab and
was weaned away from them by Maximon and Yum Cimil, although neither has ever admitted to
such a thing. Those among the K'uh who have had the misfortune of seeing both creatures harbor
health suspicions that they may be related, and the idea that the Muan might be a refugee from
hated Xibalba who defected to the gods after the Titanrealm's defeat is becoming more and more
widespread. If the bird is formerly one of the minions of the Lords of Death, it is possible that it
might even now be a double agent, sending information silently back to its masters to help them
overthrow the gods that it remains to spy on.

On the other hand, it might well merely be what it appears to be: the messenger of Metnal,
unpleasant to be sure but not any more so than the rest of the Underworld's denizens. It's certainly
true that Xibalba contains many delights that the Muan might find enticing, but as long as it is
treated well by the death gods among the K'uh, it so Far doesn't appear to be interested in going
anywhere.

Antagonists
Along with the great powers of the K'uh come greatly powerful enemies, as many-faceted and
potent as the gods themselves. They range from dangerous Titans and their minions to fractious
members of the pantheon itself, representing the perils facing the gods from outside forces and their
own unpredictable natures.

Chac Uayah Xoc, Avatar of The Drowned Road

AKA: Chac Wayab Xoc

The Drowned Road has more than its share of monsters in the depths, but few can compete with
Chac Uayab Xoc, the Great Demon Shark who patrols the Titan's polluted waters with unrelenting
predatory intent. Although occasionally appeased by long-ago Maya fishermen who hoped he
would allow them to be successful in their fishing, he is just as likely to demand the bodies and
souls of those who venture onto the ocean to sate his hunger, devouring them as they hoped to
devour the creatures of his domain. His battles with the K'uh in time gone by were spectacular and
disastrous for the World, which suffered from coastal foods, eclipses when his waves swamped the
gods of the celestial lights and terrifying hot sunsets when his attempts to set fire to the sky
scorched even the gods themselves. Chac Uayab Xoc has no particular reason for opposing the
gods; he simply does it because they try to stop him from doing whatever he wishes, which usually
involves devouring those who live anywhere near the water. He represents the endless, bottomless
hunger of the oceans, the perfect predator seeking helpless landbound prey.

Chac Uayab Xoc can appear humanoid, boasting monstrously muscled arms and legs with a thick,
slimy grey skin, flatly black eyes and triple layers of razor-sharp teeth, but he generally doesn't
bother to. His preferred form is that of a huge shark, its teeth as long as the oars hapless mortals use
to paddle his waters, its body as powerful as a massive torpedo and criss-crossed with bum and
laceration scars, souvenirs of his war with the gods. His gills are also edged with teeth, shredding
anything draw in by the force of his terrible breath, and he has far too many fins for any mortal
shark, a composite of the most flexible maneuvering limbs and rudders ever evolved in the dark
depths of the ocean. Most terrifyingly, when his maw yawns widely enough, the hands of the
myriad helpless dead he has swallowed may be seen, grasping desperately for an escape they will
never realize. Such a sight is usually the last one any god or mortal sees before joining them; to be
eaten by Chac Uayab Xoc is to spend eternity in the grasp of the ocean, even after death.

Since his escape from Tartarus, Chac Uayab Xoc spends most of his time attempting to reassert his
control over his ancient hunting grounds: Gulf of Mexico and the ocean surrounding it. While the
efforts of the Maya gods, especially Ix Chel, have so far prevented him from personally emerging
into the Gulf (an event that would surely result in the deaths of most life within a hundred miles of
the shore). he has released ever-growing numbers of his ravenous spawn into the waters there,
infesting them with Nemean and Typhonian sharks and barracudas, tendering the ocean increasingly
lethal for all but the most battle-ready of Scions and gods.

His territoriality is bad news for the K'uh but good news for the gods in general, since it results in
the Demon Shark and his minions fighting other creatures of the Drowned Road that attempt to
enter waters he considers his, but even that distraction cant truly prevent him from posing an
increasing danger to the World. He is not overly intelligent, and its only a matter of time until either
he breaks through or the other Avatars of the Drowned Road And a way to work around his single-
mindedness and harness his hunger for their own uses.

Virtues Ambition 3, Malice 4, Rapacity 5, Zealotry 2

Supernatural Powers:

-Avatars: The Beast, The Devourer, The Flood

-Boons: Every one- to eight-dot Boon from every Purview except Earth and Fire, which are
forbidden to him. Chac Uayab Xoc also has all Boons from the Animal (Shark), Fire and Water
purviews and possesses all Boons from the Tal'ich purview.

-Epic Attributes: Epic Physical Attributes at the 10-dot level (with all appropriate Knacks). All other
Epic Attributes at the eight-dot level (with all appropriate Knacks).

Vucub Caquix, Forgotten Avatar of Akhetaten

AKA: Seven Macaw

The great bird Vucub Caquix - appearing as a macaw, vulture, quetzal or even more fantastic avian
forms - is a dangerous and pitiful creature. Once the lord of the World in the twilight time between
its creation and the coming of humanity, he crowned himself the lord of all light, claiming that in
his eyes were the sun and the moon and that all other light came from the dazzling beauty of the
rich jewels that served as his teeth and feathers. Along with his family, a faithful wife and two
equally powerful and unruly sons, he ruled securely over everything he saw, proclaiming himself
equal and superior to the gods and hoarding all the riches and fine foods of the World for himself.

Vucub Caquix's lording over the World was mortally offensive to the K'uh, who were insulted by
his arrogant claims that it belonged to him instead of to the creator gods, and furthermore his
destructive presence seared and blighted the landscape with his overwhelming light, making it
impossible to attempt to create humanity until he was removed. It was Hunahpu and Xbalanque
who injured the great bird, and with help from Itzamna and lx Chel they went on to trick him into
allowing them to steal his beautiful teeth and eyes, leaving him blind, crippled and a mere shadow
of his former glorious self. To add insult to injury, the twins went on to kill both Vucub Caquix's
wife and both of his sons, and then finally had the temerity to declare themselves the sun and moon
in the great bird's place.

Where the macaw was once a rival even to Aten, he is now diminished and pathetic, earning
nothing but scorn from the other Titanspawn of the realm and rendered mostly incapable of
exercising his will in any world. He is blind without his lost eyes and helpless without his stolen
teeth. and his dreary, broken and lightless shell offends the Titanrealm with its lack of the light that
once belonged to it. It is because he was so thoroughly toppled from power-tilt Aten has never
bothered to absorb his powers, ignoring him as the crippled and useless creature he is; he no longer
has any mastery over the lights of the universe. Though he has no hope of triumphing unless he can
restore himself, Vucub Caquix still dreams of toppling the sole Avatar of the realm and taking his
place, to become once more the most powerful force of pitiless light in the universe.

Needless to say, now that he has been loosed from Tartarus Vucub Caquix has few wishes stronger
than raining destructive vengeance down on the gods who toppled him from his place and destroyed
everything he owned. The entire pantheon has earned his wrath, but it's Hunahpu and Xbalanque for
whom he carries the brightest hatred. His first order of business is to regain his teeth and eyes,
which the twins kept as prizes, and to that end he sends a stream of lesser Titanspawn children to
attempt to infiltrate Oxlahun and find where the gods have hidden them. He has so far been
unsuccessful - it is difficult for shining, malevolent birds to function well as stealthy infiltrators -
but each foray into the Ovenvorld nets him a little more information, and he believes it is only a
matter of time before he discovers and regains his lost glory.

Once he does, he is likely to immediately mount a personal assault on the home of the gods, the
better to punish the upstarts who dared reduce him to his current sorry state. He is aware that his
resurgence to power might result in Aten turning on him; after all, he has seen what happened to all
the other Avatars of Light, but once he has laid waste to the K'uh and turned Oxlahun into his own
personal palace, he believes he will be more than a match to fight Akhetaten's sole active Avatar for
control of the realm.

Virtues: Ambition 5, Malice 5, Rapacity 3, Zealotry 1

Supernatural Powers:

-Avatar: The Beast, The Glory, The Minor

-Boom: Every one- rd gight-dot Boon from every Purview except Darkness and Water, which are
forbidden to him. Vucub Caquix also has all Boons from the Animal (Macaw), Moon and Sun
purviews and possesses all Boom from the Tal'ich purview. While Vucub Caquix is missing his eyes
and teeth, he is incapable of using any boons of his boons from the Moon or Sun purviews.

-Epic Attributes: Epic Physical Attributes at the 10-dot level (with all appropriate Knacks). All other
Epic Attributes at the eight-dot level (with all apy: opriate Knacks).

Heart of Heaven

The Titan Avatar Huracan (see Scion: God, page 183) is one of the original creators of the
universe in Maya mythology, shaping and forming it from the blank emptiness of air and water
along with Kulkulkan at the beginning of time. Although he has never threatened the K'uh, whom he
considers something akin to his children, his insistence on flooding and destroying several races of
humanity caused the nearby Aztlanti to rise up against him, locking him away in Tartarus before he
could do any more severe damage to the World.

Now that he has been released, he has turned on the Aztec gods with a vengeance, bent on
destroying them as they dared to attempt to destroy him. He has so far ignored the K'uh for the most
pan, but his constant storms and incursions into the World have begun damaging their ancient
territories as well as their neighbors, and the time is soon coming when they will no longer be able
to avoid dealing with him. None of the gods are looking forward to being in the awkward position
of having both the Aztlanti and Huracan attempt to recruit their help against the other – or of
finally having to take up arms against their dangerous forefather.

Camazotz, Minion of Xibalba

AKA: Kamezotz, Sotz, Zotz

Camazotz, the nightmare bat, is one of the most recognizable and feared opponents of the K'uh,
blotting out the night with his massive wingspan and trailing death, despair and terror in his wake.
He appears as a gigantic chiropteran monster with knife-like protrusions of slicing bone on his
cheeks and nose, massive, yawning fangs to take advantage of the blood of his prey and a wiry
black fur-covered body that is just slightly too humanoid to look like a true creature of nature. The
razor-sharp claws of his feet and wings are long and cruel, and his wings are giant sheets of shining,
hideous leather, thick enough to block any light behind them and long enough to rival mortal
airplanes. He is almost always filthy and blood-covered, carrying the evidence of his recent
activities proudly.

While Camazotz is most often to be found in Xibalba, aiding the Lords of Death and marshaling his
legions of lesser bat-monsters, he is not in fact Titanspawn himself. The bat-god was originally one
of the K'uh, a frightening god of blood, death and the messengers of the afterlife, and despite his
unpleasantness received worship and terrified placation from mortal cults founded in his honor. He
was generally content with his place in the cosmos, even after Xibalba and his stomping grounds
there were sealed away, but the K'uh attitude toward death and the gods with it, ignoring, shunning
or belittling them, continued to slowly gnaw at him through century upon century, until he was
resentful and sullen of his fellow gods and their air of disgusted superiority. He has grown ever
more withdrawn and disenchanted with them over the years, spending most of his time in Metnal or
abroad in the World, and each time he returns to the Ovenvorld is more thoroughly angered by the
other gods' refusal to treat him as an equal.

With the escape of the Titans, Camazotz saw his chance; in Xibalba, he would be not only tolerated
but celebrated, appreciated for his powers over death and free to indulge them as he was always
meant to. The Lords of Death were almost as surprised by his defection as the K'uh were, but they
welcomed him with open arms, maliciously delighted that their opponents' traditional distaste for
the dead had lost them an ally and given their enemies a powerful new tool to oppose them.
Camazotz now lords over the House of Bats and coordinates the efforts and scourges of the filthy
Titanspawn who share his name, disposing of anyone who dares try to strike at the heart of the
Titanrealm.

Camazotz is not directly antagonistic toward the K'uh and will not march into battle against them
unless they attack him first, but he also has no love for them and no interest in rescuing them from
their own bad decisions. He protects the lands of the Lords of Death faithfully in return for their
willingness to respect and accept him as an honored guest, but he will not approach the front at
Metnal or lay siege to Oxlahun even for them. As a god with the freedom to come and go as he
pleases, he is active in the attempt by the Avatars of Death to infest the world with their minions as
much as possible, in particular encouraging the rise of the lesser camazon monsters in the cenotes
and caves of Central America.

While he has all but abandoned his pantheon and would be difficult to woo back, it is still possible
for some gods to have dealings with Camazotz. The only gods of Oxlahun that he is likely to
tolerate (or that are likely to tolerate him) are Hun Nal and Maximon, both of whom he knows to
suffer some of the same stigma as himself, and while they might be able to call him up to discuss
matters, he would be wary of possible traps and just as likely to try to entice them to join him in
Xibalba as to help them in their own endeavors. Yum Cimil is the only god among the K'uh that
Camazotz might term a friend, as they have spent a great deal of time together over the centuries
and know one another better than any others, but Camazotz is aware that Menial must fall for his
new Lords to be victorious, and for the moment he is allowing his better judgment to be overcome
by his anger at his former pantheon. Should he be convinced to actually witness the current siege of
Metnal or see its lord in distress, it is possible that he might move to aid him, but he intentionally
avoids the area, knowing that his resolve might weaken.

Ambitious gods or Scions might be able to convince Camazotz to rejoin the K'uh, but doing so
would be difficult indeed; not only would they need to convince the bat-god that he would be
treated fairly among the other gods, they would also need to convince the K'uh as a whole to pardon
his current treason. Camazotz has already spent too much time in Xibalba, and its Titanic influences
have begun to warp and twist his nature; the longer the gods fail to bring him back into the fold, the
less likely he is to ever return. If the conditions above were met, he might be willing to return to the
side of the gods, but any slight or suggestion that the Maya gods are snubbing him is likely to result
in violence and even more fervent support of the Lords of Xibalba.

Camazotz has a Legend rating of 11.

Virtues: Conviction 5, Courage 4, Malice 2, Loyalty 2

Strength 10, Dexterity 8, Stamina 8

Charisma 5, Manipulation 5, Appearance 10
Perception 8, Intelligence 7, Wits 7

Academics 2, Animal Ken 5, Athletics 4 Awareness 4, B awl 5, Command 3, Empathy 1, Fortitude

4, Integrity 4, Investigation 3, Larceny 2, Occult 5, Presence 5, Stealth 3, Survival 3, Throw 1

Supernatural Powers:

-Boons: Camazotz possesses all boons 1.10 in the Animal (Bat), Darkness and Death purviews.

-Epic Attributes: Epic Strength 10, Epic Dexterity 7, Epic Stamina 8, Epic Charisma 3, Epic
Manipulation 3, Epic Appearance 10, Epic Perception 7, Epic Intelligence 6, Epic Wits 7

-Other: Camazotz possesses all ten boons of the Tal'ich purview.

Hun Batz and Hun Chouen

AKA: Hun Ahan and Hun Chaven

Hun Batz and Hun Chouen are twins, the older half-brothers of their more famous younger siblings
Hunahpu and Xbalanque, but they do not occupy nearly as prestigious a place among the K'uh.
Long ago, the two sets of twins clashed over who was more powerful and worthy to be the heirs of
Hun Nal, and in the struggle Hunahpu and Xbalanque transformed their older brothers into
monkeys, permanently binding them to semi-human form and making them objects of ridicule
among the other gods. Although they technically remain among the ranks of the gods, the two
seldom join them in Oxlahun or at public gatherings; their presence tends to provoke entirely
uncomfortable amounts of poorly-hidden laughter.

The elder twins are still obviously gods, but they are equally obviously simian. Both of them appear
as fairly tall men with burnished brown skin, but they are slightly hunched over thanks to their
monkey-like shape, and boast stiff brown hair in mats on their bodies, long, prehensile tails and the
thick, fleshy lips and protruding foreheads of apes. Their yellowed teeth are fully on display when
they speak, and their voices have more than a little quality of a howler monkey's whoop, no matter
how much they try to speak calmly and precisely.

Despite their ridiculous appearance, Hun Bat and Hun Chouen are far from fools. They are the
patron gods of artists and craftsmen, and no one mocks the treasures they create or the artistic
triumphs they produce (although they're usually better off letting someone else perform or present
them). They serve as the scribes of the gods, recording the important events of the K'uh's history
and managing the fantastic libraries of the gods, which are full of their neatly-ordered scrolls and
lavishly-illustrated codices. They also make it a point of pride to keep up with the doings of
humanity, and thus their library is the only place where the full, unexpurgated history of the Maya
people can be found.

Unfortunately, the monkey twins are seldom taken seriously by the rest of the pantheon, who know
full well that their appearance is the result of a brotherly spat and can't help but smile at this
evidence of the youthful hijinks of their younger members. In addition, the spell the younger set of
twins laid on their older brothers provokes response from everyone around them, and anyone who
sees them for the first time in a given scene must roll Willpower + Integrity + Legend against a
difficulty of 30 or begin to laugh, struck by their complete ridiculousness. None of the gods are
outright cruel to them (except possibly Hunahpu and Xbalanque, who continue to believe that
pranking their brothers in new and hilarious ways is the natural order of the universe), but the
monkey gods know what the titters and snorts around them mean and chafe that their dignity has
been so permanently taken from them.

Hun Batz and Hun Chouen will not directly move against Hunahpu and Xbalanque, but they've
been nursing a cosmic sibling rivalry for centuries and would jump at the chance to make their
brothers similarly inconvenienced or humiliated. Altkough the spell that turned them into monkeys
was` a potent one indeed, it is also possible that someone with the Divine Unweaving spell might be
able to reverse it, returning them to their original forms, and if such a thing were to happen they
would likely become staquitslaAllies and friends to their savior. It seems curious that none of the
K'uh have attempted to help them before - but then again, if they were to return to their original
shapes they would be likely to renew their rivalry with their brothers, and the last thing Oxlahun
needs is a divinely escalating prank war.

Hun Ban and Hun Chouen have Legend ratings of 10, and should be considered to have the same
attributes and powers.

Virtues: Conviction 3, Courage 2, Harmony 3, Loyalty 3

Strength 6, Dexterity 10, Stamina 7

Charisma 7, Manipulation 8, Appearance 6
Perception 5, Intelligence 10, Wits 9

Academics 5, Animal Ken 4, Art 5 (Dance, Music, Writing), Athletics 3, Awareness 2, Brawl 2,
Craft 5 (Bookbinding), Empathy 5, Fortitude 3, Integrity 2, Investigation 3, Larceny 2, Medicine 2,
Melee 2, Occult 4, Politics 3, Presence 3, Stealth 3, Survival 5, Thrown 2

Supernatural Powers:

-Boons: Hun Batz and Hun Chouen possess all boom 1-9 in the Animal (Howler Monkey) purview.

-Epic Attributes: Epic Strength 6, Epic Dexterity 9, Epic Stamina 7, Epic Charisma 7, Epic
Manipulation 8, Epic Appearance 5, Epic Perception 4, Epic Intelligence 9, Epic Wits 8

-Other: Hun Batz and Hun Chouen possess all ten boons of the Tal'ich purview.

Xquic, Lady of Blood

AKA: Ixquic, Xkik

Xquic is one of the loveliest inhabitants of Oxlahun, but that doesn't make her any more pleasant to
be around or more comfortable for most of the gods who reside there. A delicate goddess with
graceful hands and an innate and easy way with crops and wild animals alike, her beauty is
somewhat marred by the constant rivulets of blood that run from her every orifice, spilling like tears
out of her eyes, cars and nose, running from her mouth whenever she speaks and snaking down her
legs to leave a trail of red life behind her wherever she goes. The Lady of Blood seems not to notice
this phenomenon, and likewise her husband, the lordly Hun Nal, seems to see nothing at all
untoward about the fact that his bride is continually leaking all over the landscape. Xquic's steady
hemorrhaging is a legacy of her heritage; she is a daughter of one of the lesser lords of Xibalba, the
infamous Chuchumaquic who works directly for the Lords of Death, Hun Came and Vucub Came.
Long ago, she was impregnated by Hun Nal's severed head while he was still trapped in Xibalba
and fled lest she be killed by her father for the crime, coming to live among the gods only after a
long journey and many trials. Although Xquic is now accepted as a full membre of the K'uh,
officially the wife of Hun Nal and accepted as a granddaughter by aged lx Chel, her frightful origins
remain evident in the stream of neverending blood. The Maya godsput up with her presence, but
more than a few of them are not wholly convinced when she says that she has repudiated her former
family fogler, and mutter among themselves that creatures of death never tolerate the living for
long.

While Xquic herself is in fact harmless, the K'uh arc right to worry about her presence in
Oxlahuna.. The taint of the realm of death still clings to her despite her defection to the side of the
gods, and the Ovenvorld itself is affected by it. Whatever her blood touches is immediately polluted
by it; rivers and streams become permanently rusty and muddled, animals become unruly and
vicious toward anyone but Xquic herself and even plants grow bloodthirsty and disturbingly mobile,
opening unnatural mouths to try to swallow any life that might come too near them. These effects
can of course be purged by those of the K'uh with power over nature, but they are unsettling in the
extreme and as a result Xquic is seldom seen outside of Hun Nal's territory. She is not precisely
confined there, but the pantheon recognizes an unspoken agreement that the price for her continued
presence in the Ovenvorld is her cooperation in staying far away from most of them unless a full
meeting of all the gods is called (and even then, most of the Maya deities would not be in the least
annoyed if she failed to appear).
More dangerous that Xquic's effect on the local wildlife, however, is the threat from Xibalba that
she represents. Her father, Chuchumaquic, is alive and well and cannot wait to wreak violent
vengeance on Hun Nal for the defilement of his daughter, and despite most of Xibalba's forces
being concentrated on Metnal, he is planning to make direct incursions, by stealth or force, into
Oxlahun with the sole goal of destroying the maize god in his home. He is actually unaware of
Xquic's presence there, thanks to her quick thinking in convincing several of the Coo Akab to carry
a false heart back to him to convince him that she was dead, but should he discover that she is alive
he would also turn his fury on the daughter who betrayed and abandoned him. Xquic has so far been
successful in hiding her existence from her father, but with the spies of Xibalba everywhere, it may
be only a matter of time.

Virtues: Conviction 3, Courage 2, Harmony 1, Loyalty 4

Strength 5, Dexterity 6, Stamina 5

Charisma 9, Manipulation 8, Appearance 8
Perception 6, Intelligence6, Wits 7

Academics 2, Animal Ken 5, Athletics 3, Awareness 3, Brawl 2, Empathy 5, Fortitude 2, Integrity 2,

Larceny 3, Medicine 5, Melee 1, Occult 5, Politics 4, Presence 5, Stealth 4, Survival 3, Thrown 2

Supernatural Powers:

-Boons: Xquic has all Boons from the Death and Fertility purviews up to level 8.

-Epic Attributes: Epic Strength 3 (Hang On, Knockback Attack, Titanium Tools), Epic Dexterity 6
(Cat's Grace, Divine Balance, Lightning Sprinter, Monkey Climber, Omnidexterity, Perfect Partner),
Epic Stamina 5 (Damage Conversion, Divine Fortitude, Holy Fortitude, Inner Furnace, Solipsistic
Well-Being), Epic Charisma 8 (all appropriate knacks), Epic Manipulation 7 (all appropriate
knacks), Epic Appearance 7 (all appropriate knacks), Epic Perception 5 (Environmental Awareness,
Predatory Focus, Refined Palate, Spatial Attunement, Subliminal Warning), Epic Intelligence 6
(Blockade of Reason, Know-It-All, Multitasking, Perfect Memory, Telepathy, Well-Read Virgin),
Epic Wits 7 (all appropriate knacks)

Join Battle: 10 + 22

Soak: 16B/14L/5A
Health Levels: -0x18/Incap

Dodge DV: 25
Willpower: 7
Legend: 9 Legend Points: 81

Other Deities
Ek Chuah, God of Merchants

AKA: Chuah, Ek Chuwa, Ekchuah, God M, Ik Chauah, Yacatecuhtli, Ykchaua

Ek Chuah is the god of merchants, prosperity and trade and the protection of travelers, but most
Scions and gods wouldn't know it to look at him. An old, stooped man with a wide, red-rimmed grin
revealing missing teeth, a long, sharp nose and skin so dark it almost appears black from many
years traveling under the hot sun, he appears as more of a caricature than a living thing, especially
when he begins moving and reveals the gigantic, plump scorpion's tail behind him, dragging
somewhat forlornly in the dust when he is not feeling threatened. The Black Scorpion was once one
of the preeminent gods of traders, protecting them on the road from any who might threaten them
and assuring them success and wealth in the marketplace, and in return he received offerings of
precious cacao beans, his favorite delicacy and a form of currency in their own right. His eyes
sparkle with slightly malicious good humor, and his distended, almost deformed lower lip juts out
past his chin from centuries of sucking on cacao beans while he walks the trade routes, staff in
hand.

As the god of a very worldly concept, being kept away from humanity for the past several centuries
by the threat of Fatebonds has been hard for Ek Chuah, and he visits the World more often than
most, risking the consequences of entwining his destiny with mortals in order to occasionally affect
important business dealings or make off with a particularly rich shipment of dark, almost pure
chocolate. He is too restless, preferring an active life on the road, to be happy spending too much
time in his home in Oxlahun, and as a result is usually found wandering there from the home to
home of the other gods, attempting to interest them in trades for whatever wares he happens to have
on him. Nobody is very excited to see the divine traveling salesman show up on their doorstep an
inconvenient moment, but more than a few of the K'uh have found that treating him with the
appropriate respect and displaying a certain skill at haggling might cause him to produce an
unexpected treasure.

The only exception to Ek Chuah's daily wanderings is Patan Na, which he avoids as pointedly as he
makes sure to visit (and bother) everyone else. Maximon and Ek Chuah have long been rivals for
the title of the preeminent god of trade, and Ek Chuah is bitterly certain that if only the
conquistadors hadn't mined all his hard work, his cult would surely have been on the cusp of
usurping the older god's and becoming the new authority in matters of commerce. Maximon, who
does not view the other god as much of a threat to his position and who finds his resentment of his
betters misguided and hilarious, is not above subtly teasing him whenever they happen to be in the
same room and takes care to ensure that his would-be rival knows exactly how little he thinks of
him. While it is unlikely that Ek Chuah could overcome Maximon's powers over good fortune and
chance to actually defeat him at his own game, he is always on the lookout for anything, no matter
how small, that he might be able to hold over the other god's head.

Virtues: Conviction 4, Courage 3, Harmony 3, Loyalty 2

Strength 5, Dexterity 8, Stamina 8

Charisma 6, Manipulation 6, Appearance 8
Perception 7, Intelligence 7, Wits 7

Academics 3, Animal Ken 3, Athletics 3, Awareness 3, Brawl 2, Command 3, Craft 5 (Relics),

Empathy 2, Fortitude 5, Integrity 2, Investigation 3, Larceny 4, Medicine I, Melee 3, Politics 4,
Presence 3, Stealth 2, Survival 5

Supernatural Powers:

-Boons: Ek Chuah has all Boons from the Animal (Scorpion), Guardian and Tal'ich purviews up to
level 9.

-Epic Attributes: Epic Strength 5 (Hang On, Holy Bound, Hurl to the Horizon, Knockback Attack,
Knockback Wave), Epic Dexterity 7 (all appropriate knacks), Epic Stamina 8 (all appropriate
knacks), Epic Charisma 6 (Benefit of the Doubt, Blame James, Boys Will be Boys, Charmer,
Hapless Cool, Pied Piper), Epic Manipulation 6 (Advantageous Circumstances, God's Honest, Hard
Sell, Overt Order, Return to Sender, Rumor Mill), Epic Appearance 8 (all appropriate knacks), Epic
Perception 7 (all appropriate knacks), Epic Intelligence 6 (Axiom, Cipher, Concept to Execution,
Fast Learner, Language Mastery, Perfect Memory, Star Pupil), Epic Wits 7 (all appropriate knacks)

Join Battle: 10 + 22

Soak: 37B/33L/8A
Health Levels: -0x42/Incap

Dodge DV: 40
Willpower: 7
Legend: 10 Legend Points: 100

Ixtab, Goddess of Suicide

Ixtab is not among the most well-known goddesses of the Maya pantheon; she had little worship
during the height of their power and appeared in few works of art, remaining a shadowy figure
known but not spoken of, accorded respect but not an abundance of worship. Her semi-anonymity
continues into the present-day, when she is a mere footnote in most studies on the K'uh and the gods
themselves seldom see or refer to her. It's not that she's considered an enemy by her pantheon; they
just don't really like to talk about her.

Ixtab is the goddess of suicide, most specifically suicide by hanging, which was considered an
honorable death for ancient Maya nobility. She most often appears as a beautiful woman -with full
breasts and an enticing smile, seldom bothering with clothing or jewelry other than an ever-present
noose that hangs carelessly from her neck; her alluring presence is somewhat jarringly contrasted by
the spots of black decay that appear on her face and body, representing her connection to inevitable
death. Her morbid associations are uncomfortable for the gods, but it is more her political position
that concerns them; as a goddess with the power to inspire humanity and even lesser immortals to
take their own lives, she can upset or enhance anyone's position by choosing to grant her favors to
anyone who figures prominently in a god's schemes. She doesn't seem to mind her pantheon's
tendency to cough and look away when she passes by, however. She understands the fear of death
and, when she does drop in to chat with any of her fellow gods, does her best to dispel it.

As in ancient times, Ixtab serves as a psychopomp who guides the souls of those who have taken
their own lives to their judgment in Metnal. She is reputed to be soft-hearted toward these
unfortunates and often allows them to stop and rest beneath Yaxche with her before turning them
over to Yum Cimil's tender mercies, and if she takes a special liking to one of the dead. even the
lord of Memal is not immune to her charms when she decides to speak on a mortal's behalf. In these
modern times, the number of suicides in the parts of the World once overseen by the K'uh has
skyrocketed, and she is busier than ever with her self-appointed task of collecting the souls of the
dead and cheering them on their way to their eternal disposition. While she says she doesn't directly
seek to convince anyone to kill themselves, it's undeniable that the suicide rate tends to go up
whenever she has recently passed through, almost as if those who saw her would rather end their
lives to follow her than continue living.

The K'uh are as fond of Ixtab as they can be of any of their gods who dabble in the afterlife, but
they are concerned that she may be too vulnerable now that Xibalba has awakened again. Her
forays down Yaxche to the Underworld grow more and more dangerous as the forces laying siege to
Metnal gain in strength, and Ixtab is not powerful enough on her own to resist them if she should be
attacked or captured. Maximon, who has a soft spot for a pretty face and appreciates lxtab's
company when she passes through, has been particularly vocal in trying to convince her to abandon
her duties for the time being until the situation is safer, but she is politely adamant in refusing to do
so. Those lost mortals above need her, and she isn't about to abandon them just when the going gets
tough.

Should Ixtab be captured by the forces of Xibalba, they would be likely to attempt to convert her
into becoming one of their servants, or possibly to slowly torture her in the hopes that some of the
forces guarding Metnal (or perhaps even Yum Cimil himself) might be persuaded to leave the place
less securely guarded in order to try to rescue her. Ixtab's powers over the Psychopomp purview
make her difficult to catch and she has so far managed to complete her duties without falling prey to
the watching scouts of the Titanrealm, but the worse the situation in Metnal becomes, the more
likely it will be that the K'uh lose her to them.

Ixtab has a Legend rating of 9.

Virtues: Conviction 5, Courage 2, Harmony 4, Loyalty 3

Strength 5, Dexterity 6, Stamina 6

Charisma 9, Manipulation 7, Appearance 9
Perception 6, Intelligence 6, Wits 7

Academies 2, Athletics 3, Awareness 4, Brawl 2. Command 3, Empathy 5, Fortitude 3, Integrity 3,

Investigation 4, Medicine 5, Occult 4, Politics 4, Presence 5, Stealth 3, Survival 2, Thrown 2

Supernatural Powers:

-Boons: Ixtab possesses all boons 1-8 in the Death and Psychopomp purviews.

-Epic Attributes: Epic Strength 5, Epic Dexterity 6, Epic Stamina 5, Epic Charisma 8, Epic
Manipulation 6, Epic Appearance 8, Epic Perception 5, Epic Intelligence 5, Epic Wits 6

Sucucyum, Judge of the Underworld

AKA: Sucanyum, Sukanyum, Sukukyum, Sukuk'yum

The Judge of the Undenvorld is not so fierce as his title might suggest; while it is true that
Sucucyum oversees the entrance of the souls of the dead into Mental and judges their worthiness to
be destroyed in Yum Cimil's trials or released to spend eternity in the Rotted Wild, he is no stem
patriarch nor grinning sadist. Those few among the living who have spoken to Sucucyum recall him
fondly as a fatherly, comforting and patient figure, never raising his voice or speaking to anyone in
anger, performing his duties with wise sympathy and impartiality. Like all things that reside in
Mental, he bears the marks of death upon him, but in his case it is a gentle, wasting death, far less
gruesome than the rotting decay that often surrounds him. Sucucyum most often appears as a
wizened old man, his face grave and kind despite the parchment-thin skin and the skeletal thinness
of his body.

Sucucyum is not a prisoner in Mental, but neither is he really free to go, long ago tasked by Itramna
with maintaining and protecting order and justice in the unpleasant realms of the dead. As Yum
Cimil's older brother, he is the only person to whom the Lord of the Underworld will listen, and as a
result he is the only god on deck at any given time to curb his temper and prevent him from causing
the gods in OxbEtun undue problems. It is Sucucyum who keeps Yum Cimil from damaging the
Pillars of the World too grievously or frequently with his mighty strikes, who convinces him not to
joumey upward to Oxlahun except under the direst of circumstances and who prevents the righteous
dead from being destroyed if the death god becomes too absorbed in the task of punishing them. He
also helps smooth the way for those of the K'uh who are forced to come to Metnal on one errand or
another, and is an especial helper to K'inich Ahau; when he carries the sun through the Underworld
at night, keeping it safe from the decay around it to be born again with the dawn, he knows that if
his strength flags Sucucyum will always be there to lift him onto his back and carry him for a while.

Sucucyum's help is a great boon to the K'uh, but unfortunately it does not bring him any particular
joy to be trapped in the Underworld as his brother's appointed keeper. When not on duty (which is
seldom, since most of his time is spent hovering around the Pillars or the House of Burning), he
lives in a small, unprepossessing but in the Rotted Wild, indistinguishable from those of the mortal
souls there except that it stands alone and away from their settlements. He is desperately unhappy
with his fate and fondly recalls the days when he lived in Oxlahun and was not constantly subjected
to the underworld and its disgusting inhabitants, but he has resigned himself to his duties and knows
better than to try to leave, risking the displeasure of the rest of his pantheon and the possible
repercussions if he were not around to help in Mental.

Should anyone want to help Sucucyum escape his dreary existence, they would have to perform
some impressive political machinations indeed to convince the rest of his pantheon to formally
request that the god that prevents them from having to see the Underworld's unpleasantries be
relieved of duty. There are few gods that could reasonably take his place, and none of them possess
the close bond with Yum Cimil that allows Sucucyum to assuage or redirect the death god's wrath in
moments of crisis. Now that Menial is under siege, Sucucyum is needed there more than ever
before, especially to help K'inich Ahau, whom the forces of the Lords of Death would love to
capture for their own dark purposes. Yum Cimil, when he can spare attention from the front lines,
would be likely to support his brother's departure to the Overworld; it's not untrue that he would like
to see Sucucyum happier, but the fact that he would be free to do whatever he wanted whenever he
wanted without his older sibling's supervision is no doubt an even stronger motivator.

Sucucyum has no particular skill in combat and is not much use as a front-line fighter, but he helps
his brother with the defense of the Underworld in whatever ways he can. Despite their wildly
different temperaments and often clashing values, the brothers are utterly loyal to one another and
would never attempt to cause each other harm or discomfort, and in the event (all too likely, these
days) that one of them is injured or killed by minions of Xibalba, it is likely that the other would
self-destruct in an attempt to avenge him. Yum Cimil and Sucucyum are devoted to one anothers
safety; they just don't much like being roommates.

Virtues: Conviction 3, Courage 2, Harmony 5, Loyalty 4

Strength 4, Dexterity 6, Stamina 5

Charisma 10, Manipulation 7, Appearance 5
Perception 10, Intelligence 8, Wits 7

Academics 3, Animal Ken 4, Athletics 5, Awareness 5, Brawl 1, Command 4, Empathy 5, Fortitude

3, Integrity 5, Investigation 3, Medicine 2, Melee 1, Occult 3, Presence 5, Stealth 2

Supernatural Powers:

-Boons: Sucucyum has all boons from the Death, Justice and Tal'ich purviews up to level 9. Epic
Attributes: Epic Strength 3 (Holy Bound, Making It Look Easy, Uplifting Might), Epic Dexterity 5
(Cat's Grace, Fast as Thought, Lightning Sprinter, Perfect Partner, Roll With It), Epic Stamina 5
(Divine Fortitude, Holy Fortitude, Regeneration, Self-Healing, Skin-Shedding), Epic Charisma 9
(all appropriate knacks), Epic Manipulation 7 (all appropriate knacks), Epic Appearance (Game
Face, Lasting Impression, My Eyes Are Up, Perfect actor), Epic Perception 9 (all appropriate
knacks), Epic Intelligence 8 (all appropriate knacks), Epicc Wits 6 (Eternal Vigilance, Instant
Assessment, Meditative Focus, Opening Gambit, Psychic Profiler, Rabbit Reflexes)

Join Battle: 12 + 26

Soak: 16B/14L/5A
Health Levels: -0x18/Incap

Dodge DV: 17
Willpower: 10
Legend: 10 Legend Points: 100

Tohil

AKA: Tohohil, Tojil

Tohil is and always has been one of the most personally beloved of the Maya gods. As the especial
patron god of the K'iche Maya, the tribes of Guatemala who survived the depredations of the
conquistadors for much longer than their northern brethren, he was celebrated as the giver of
security and the divine leader of an entire people. It was he who granted the gift of fire to his people
and led them to their safe havens in the jungle villages of Central America, and now it is he who is
most stricken by their near-extermination and the imminent destruction of the last footholds where
traditional Maya ways of life are still practiced.

Tohil himself is somewhat forbidding in appearance; large, serpentine teeth jut from his jaw, while
his solid and blocky figure seems to be cast entirely of animated stone, moving as ponderously as a
mountainside. The god of fire also has an internal inferno, burning without any need for fuel or air,
and the red light of this conflagration can be seen through cracks in his rocky skin and roars out,
along with smoke, when he opens his mouth to speak.

While the other gods of the K'uh are content to maintain their palaces in Oxlahun or police the
World lackadaisically from afar, Tohil believes that immediate and drastic action is called for and
will accept nothing less than full mobilization. Now that the Titans are free, he reasons, is the
perfect time for the gods to return to their people, once again revealing themselves and becoming
close allies in the religion of sacrifice and blessing that he remembers so fondly. The fact that the
descendants of the Maya of Guatemala are growing more scattered and diluted every day is not lost
on him, but he believes that he could round them up and lead them to a new promised land,
encouraging them to found an empire the likes of which the World has not seen in centuries. When
other gods attempt to gently remind him that such an effort would be dangerous and probably
fruitless, he is quick to angrily point out the utter collapse of the Yucatec Maya, who without the
support of their gods were easily conquered and scattered by invading Europeans. It's not too late
for the last of their people, he believes, and he is determined to save them whether it's for their own
good or not.

Tohil might very well succeed in founding a new Maya empire in Guatemala, particularly with the
aid of likeminded Scions or gods, but doing so is fraught with potential problems. He is already
becoming too Fatebound to mortals thanks to recent covert trips to the World to try to convince the
few remaining traditionalists to accept him as their ancient patron returned, and he does not yet
have a clear idea where, exactly, he plans to lead them, as almost all available land is bewilderingly
thoroughly settled in this modern age and invading the territories traditionally held by other
pantheons will only cause further problems. His presence threatens to damage the natural order of
both history and nature, things that the other K'uh will be unable to tolerate if he goes too far. Still,
his intentions are noble, and if he pulls off his audacious plan he will he able to look the rest of his
pantheon in the eye and demand their respect as the reborn patron of the K'iche again.

Virtues: Conviction 5, Courage 3, Harmony 2, Loyalty 4

Strength 7, Dexterity 6, Stamina 10

Charisma 8, Manipulation 6, Appearance 8
Perception 7, Intelligence 8, Wits 9

Academics 2, Animal Ken 2, Athletics 4, Awareness 3, Brawl 3, Command 5, Empathy 2, Fortitude

5, Integrity 5, Investigation 2, Medicine 2, Melee 3, Occult 2, Politics 5, Presence 3, Stealth 2,
Survival 5, Thrown 3

Supernatural Powers:

-Boons: Tohil has all Boons from the Fire, Guardian and Tal'ich purviews up to level 10.

-Epic Attributes: Epic Strength 7 (all appropriate knacks), Epic Dexterity 5 (And the Crowd Goes
Wild, Monkey Climber, Perfect Partner, Ricochet Symphony, Spider Climber), Epic Stamina 10 (all
appropriate knacks), Epic Charisma 8 (all appropriate knacks), Epic Manipulation 5 (Blurt It Out,
God's Honest, Hard Sell, Oven Order, Stench of Guilt), Epic Appearance 8 (all appropriate knacks),
Epic Perception 7 (all appropriate knacks), Epic Intelligence 8 (all appropriate knacks), Epic Wits 9
(all appropriate knacks).

Join Battle: 12 + 37

Soak: 56B/51L/10A
Health Levels: -0x53/Incap

Dodge DV: 22
Willpower: 9
Legend: 11 Legend Points: 121

Yum Caax, Lord of the Forest

AKA: Yum Kaax, Yumi Kaax, Yumcaax

The Maya god of the jungles, wilderness and beasts that reside there is seen much more seldom in
the Overworld than most of the other gods, preferring the solitude of the hunt and the company of
the creatures of the wild over civil conversation with other members of his pantheon. The K'uh are
for the most part happy to let him stay in his beloved forests; while they like him well enough,
there's no denying that the fruits and berries produced by the forest are sweeter when he is at home
and the animals there more plentiful and less likely to bite off a traveler's face without warning.
Several of the major gods of the K'uh maintain small pockets of forest in their domains in case he
should wish to visit, reaping the benefits of his presence once he has moved on and left them to
harvest succulent wild fruits and delicacies.

Yum Caax is a sharp-faced, taciturngod with little time for talk or distraction, dressed in traditional
Maya hunting garb with bow and spears, tools of his trade, never far from his hands. He is not
exactly animalistic, but his movements and short, sharp speech recall various inhabitants of the
wildlands he oversees, recalling the jaguar in his lithe stride or the hunting raptor in the sharp turn
of his head, seeking prey. No wild place is foreign to him, and he can navigate the most
impenetrable wildernesses and most dangerous natural disasters as easily as walking down street.

While Yum Caax' loner nature was not a problem during the long absence of the K'uh from the
World, with their forced return to battle the Titans he has found to his dismay that most of his fellow
deities of nature are gone or in hiding, and that the once-lush forests and jungles of Central America
have become mere shadows of the glorious havens he remembers. The borders of the forests where
he was once worshiped have shrunk and changed shape, diminished ACV logging and the
expansion of a humanity that no longer cares about asking his permission, and even the mighty
rainforest now known as the Maya Biosphere Reserve has been ravaged by time and the
depredations of mortals.

Yum Caax's first instinct is to personally take charge of the outrage being perpetrated upon his wild
domain, but he is prevented from exerting his true power by the threat of Fatebonds and the
knowledge that his presence would surely call down powerful minions of the Titans to further
worsen matters. He has begun creating a large number of Scions, sending them out to act as
conservationists and defenders of the jungles, but every day the forests shrink a little bit more and
he edges that much closer to losing his tenuous grip on moderation. Already his Scions are prone to
shooting first and asking questions later, laying waste anything they think might threaten the jungles
that they constantly patrol, and they are uncommunicative with other Scions of the K'uh at best.

The increased activity in the rainforests of Central America has managed to attract some unwanted
attention: agents of the Titanrealm Terra, particularly minions of Gran Bois. The Titan Avatar sees
in Yum Caax's behavior the potential to fan his frustration and anger into a full-blown frenzy, and to
that end has begun to intentionally showcase as much of the worst behavior of humanity (with a
little help from malicious Titanspawn) as he can in front of Yum Caax's Scions and other helpers. It
is his hope that, with enough pressure, he might be able to drive the god fully insane, encouraging
him to destroy all civilization to make way for the wilds and making him a powerful ally in his
quest to allow nothing, not even the basic needs of humanity, to touch the forests he considers his
domain. Yum Caax has so far kept his actions confined to defense and reasonable conservation, but
the more destruction occurs to the forests of the World, the more likely it is that he will give in to
Gran Bois' persuasive voice whispering in his ear.

Virtues: Conviction 4, Courage 2, Harmony 5, Loyalty 2

Strength 7, Dexterity 10, Stamina 7

Charisma 9, Manipulation 5, Appearance 6
Perception 10, Intelligence 6, Wits 7

Animal Ken 5, Athletics 4, Awareness 5, Brawl 2, Command 5, Empathy I, Fortitude 3, Integrity 4,

Investigation 5, Marksmanship 5, Medicine 3, Melee 3, Occult 2, Politics 1, Presence 3, Stealth 4,
Survival 5, Thrown 3

Supernatural Powers:

-Boons: Yum Caax has all Boons from the Animal (Binh, Deer, Jaguar), Fertility and Tal'ich
purviews up to level 8.

-Epic Attributes: Epic Strength 7 (all appropriate knacks), Epic Dexterity 9 (all appropriate knacks),
Epic Stamina 7 (all appropriate knacks), Epic Charisma 9 (all appropriate knacks), Epic
Manipulation 5 (Advantageous Circumstances, Instant Hypnosis, Mass Hypnosis, Overt Order,
Rumor Mill), Epic Appearance 6 (Come Hither, Detail Variation, Game Face, My Eyes Are Up
Here, Serpent's Gaze, Undeniable Resemblance), Epic Perception 9 (all appropriate knacks), Epic
Intelligence 6 (Fight With Your Head, Know-lt-All, Language Mastery, Multitasking, Perfect
Memory, Teaching Prodigy), Epic Wits 7 (all appropriate knacks)

Join Battle: 12 + 22

Soak: 29B/26L/7A
Health Levels: -0x29/lncap

Dodge DV: 49
Willpower 8
Legend: 10 Legend Points: 100